Route reliability record
DTW→MIA
Detroit to Miami
- Flights
- 1,757
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,145 mi
- Carriers
- 6
This route lands a B, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 1,757 DTW to MIA flights, of which American Airlines flew 394 at 88.9% on time.
Best time to fly DTW to MIA: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.0% of the time and Tuesday flights 91.4%, against 80.7% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
80.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,728 completed flights
Avg delay
63 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.42%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
88.9% on time across 394 flights
These figures cover 1,757 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 7 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on DTW to MIA
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 88.9% of the time; Delta Air Lines manages 79.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 929 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 394 | 88.9% | 84 min | 1.02% | A |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 108 | 81.5% | 72 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 929 | 79.1% | 55 min | 1.08% | B |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 248 | 77.7% | 61 min | 4.03% | B− |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 14 | 71.4% | 39 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 64 | 66.7% | 96 min | 1.56% | C |
American leads Delta by 10 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Flight by flight
Flights on DTW to MIA
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Detroit to Miami
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 2 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. DTW → MIADetroit to Miami | American Airlines | 88.0% | 88.9% | 1.02% | 5am–8am, Tue | AA 1020 06:00 |
| 2. DTW → MIADetroit to Miami | Delta Air Lines | 78.2% | 79.1% | 1.08% | 8am–11am, Tue | DL 1468 08:30 |
| 3. DTW → FLLDetroit to Fort Lauderdale | Delta Air Lines | 72.4% | 73.6% | 1.66% | 5am–8am, Tue | DL 1378 10:05 |
| 4. DTW → FLLDetroit to Fort Lauderdale | Spirit Airlines | 64.7% | 66.8% | 3.17% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 19 points, against 10 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am629 flights87.1%
- 8am–11am225 flights90.0%
- 11am–2pm160 flights71.1%
- 2pm–5pm373 flights75.2%
- 5pm–8pm354 flights75.7%
- 8pm–5am16 flights—
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 71.1% on time against 90.0% for 8am–11am. That shape usually means a departure bank rather than an accumulating delay, so the recovery later in the afternoon is real rather than noise. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 629 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DTW to MIA by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On DTW to MIA, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 90.0% on time and the worst is 11am–2pm at 71.1%, a wide gap of 18.9 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am87.1%
- 8–11am90.0%
- 11am–2pm71.1%
- 2–5pm75.2%
- 5–8pm75.7%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 30 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
December is the weak month at 62.4% on time, against 92.3% in June. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. March was the busiest month here, with 226 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 91.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 70.6%, a spread of 21 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 42% of the 21,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 42%Carrier
- 32%National Airspace System
- 25%Late-arriving aircraft
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 42%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 8,895 of the 21,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 21,014 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.42% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.23%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
6.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 1,145 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 73.5% on time across 1,755 flights, 7 points below this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 7 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,757 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in MIA after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. June runs 92.3% on time and December 62.4%, a swing of 30 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 1,728 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DTW to MIA questions
How often is DTW to MIA delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 19.3% of the 1,757 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on DTW to MIA?
American Airlines leads at 88.9% on time across 394 flights. Delta Air Lines is at the other end on 79.1%, a gap of 10 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on DTW to MIA?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 90.0% on time. The 11am–2pm window is the weakest at 71.1%, 19 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are December delays on DTW to MIA?
December is the weakest month at 62.4% on time, compared with 92.3% in June. Across the year that is 30 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- MIA to DTW — the return legseparate record
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- Miami International (MIA) delay statistics
- American Airlines on DTW to MIA88.9%
- Envoy Air on DTW to MIA81.5%
- Delta Air Lines on DTW to MIA79.1%
- Spirit Airlines on DTW to MIA77.7%
- DTW to ORD, a related route72.2%
- ATL to MIA, a related route71.2%
- DTW to ATL, a related route78.9%
- American Airlines on-time record88.9%
- Envoy Air on-time record81.5%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record79.1%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
Direction matters. DTW to MIA and MIA to DTW are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.