Route reliability record
DTW→MSP
Detroit to Minneapolis
- Flights
- 1,881
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 528 mi
- Carriers
- 2
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 1,881 DTW to MSP flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.
Best time to fly DTW to MSP: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 85.3% of the time and Saturday flights 82.7%, against 79.8% 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
79.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,868 completed flights
Avg delay
62 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.69%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
79.8% on time across 1,879 flights
These figures cover 1,881 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 6 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 MSP
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,879 | 79.8% | 62 min | 0.69% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 2 | 50.0% | 195 min | 0.00% | F+ |
Flight by flight
Flights on DTW to MSP
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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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 17 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am364 flights84.5%
- 8am–11am365 flights85.3%
- 11am–2pm364 flights84.7%
- 2pm–5pm367 flights75.7%
- 5pm–8pm181 flights68.5%
- 8pm–5am240 flights72.0%
Scale runs 60% to 90%.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 85.3% of the time, against 68.5% for the evening window. That is 17 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 367 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DTW to MSP 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 MSP, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 85.3% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 68.5%, a wide gap of 16.8 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am84.5%
- 8–11am85.3%
- 11am–2pm84.7%
- 2–5pm75.7%
- 5–8pm68.5%
- 8pm–5am72.0%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 24 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 65.4% on time, against 89.7% in May. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 182 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 82.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 76.1%, a spread of 7 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 54% of the 23,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 54%Carrier
- 22%Late-arriving aircraft
- 20%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 54%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 13,000 of the 23,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 23,471 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.69%, below the national 1.89% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
6.5% 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 528 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 runs 82.7% on time across 1,884 flights, within 3 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 1,881 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 MSP 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. May runs 89.7% on time and December 65.4%, a swing of 24 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 1,868 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DTW to MSP questions
How often is DTW to MSP 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 20.2% of the 1,881 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
How reliable is DTW to MSP compared with the rest of the country?
79.8% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 3 points in its favour. That is worth a B+ on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on DTW to MSP?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 85.3% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 68.5%, 17 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 MSP?
December is the weakest month at 65.4% on time, compared with 89.7% in May. Across the year that is 24 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
- MSP to DTW — the return legseparate record
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- Minneapolis-St Paul International (MSP) delay statistics
- DTW to ORD, a related route72.2%
- ORD to MSP, a related route69.9%
- DTW to ATL, a related route78.9%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record79.8%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record50.0%
- 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 MSP and MSP 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.