Carrier route record
DLDTW→SYR
Delta Air Lines · Detroit to Syracuse
- Flights
- 365
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 50%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Delta Air Lines.
Delta on DTW to SYR lands a B, about a point better than the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 55 minutes on average. That rests on 365 flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate Delta on DTW to SYR from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
78.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 357 completed flights
Avg delay
55 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.19%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
76.5%
Every carrier on DTW to SYR, 725 flights
These figures cover 365 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 9 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
Delta against every carrier on DTW to SYR
Delta flew 365 of the 725 flights on DTW to SYR, most of the route. Its 78.2% on time is 2 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 76.5%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 80.0% to SkyWest at 74.9%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 5 | 80.0% | 19 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 365 | 78.2% | 55 min | 2.19% | B |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 355 | 74.9% | 91 min | 0.00% | C+ |
Flight by flight
Delta flight numbers on DTW to SYR
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Departure window
When Delta runs best on this route
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 365 flights.
The overnight block holds up unusually well at 78.3% on time across 363 flights. Red-eyes fly into empty airspace and empty gates, and they are the first rotation of the aircraft's day rather than the last. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 363 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Delta on DTW to SYR through the year
- Jul–Sep 202530 flights83.3%
- Oct–Dec 202592 flights73.3%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights73.9%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights87.5%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights75.4%
Scale runs 65% to 95%.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 78.2% on time across 365 flights.
Delta on DTW to SYR did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 87.5% on time and its weakest Oct–Dec 2025 at 73.3%, a swing of 14 points on roughly 73 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 82.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 68.8%, a spread of 14 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Delta on DTW to SYR runs when it is late
Delta on DTW to SYR often beats the schedule: 104 of 357 completed flights, 29%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 78 late arrivals split 26 under half an hour, 31 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 21 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early104 flights29.1%
- Within 15 min175 flights49.0%
- 15–29 min late26 flights7.3%
- 30–59 min late31 flights8.7%
- 1–2 hours late14 flights3.9%
- 2+ hours late7 flights2.0%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 357 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
14 of 75 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 19% of them. 17 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for Delta on DTW to SYR
The latest arrival of the period was on 13 April 2026, 3 hours 47 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on four of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 13 April 2026 | 3 hours 47 minutes | Carrier |
| 11 August 2026 | 2 hours 43 minutes | Carrier |
| 8 November 2025 | 2 hours 29 minutes | Carrier |
| 17 March 2026 | 2 hours 17 minutes | Carrier |
| 14 January 2026 | 2 hours 15 minutes | Extreme weather |
Delay causes
Why Delta runs late on this route
Carrier accounts for 53% of the 4,285 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 53%Carrier
- 26%Late-arriving aircraft
- 17%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 53%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 2,280 of the 4,285 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 4,285 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.19% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
5.9% 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 55 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 374 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 8pm–5am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 85.7% on time across 365 flights, 8 points above 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 8 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 365 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking Delta on DTW to SYR
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 365 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 78.2% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 357 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- DTW to SYR, every carrier
- Delta on SYR to DTW, the return leg
- SkyWest Airlines on DTW to SYR74.9%
- Delta Air Lines network-wide record
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- How to read this site: grades, sample sizes, and honest caveats
- The best day of the week to fly, and why it is the second lever
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.