Route reliability record
DTW→TPA
Detroit to Tampa
- Flights
- 2,290
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 983 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route lands a B, about a point 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 2,290 DTW to TPA flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,716 at 81.5% on time.
Best time to fly DTW to TPA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 85.0% of the time and Wednesday flights 83.4%, against 78.7% 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
78.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,241 completed flights
Avg delay
65 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.88%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
81.5% on time across 1,716 flights
These figures cover 2,290 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 5 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 TPA
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 81.5% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 70.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 405 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,716 | 81.5% | 63 min | 1.22% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 405 | 70.8% | 65 min | 4.94% | C− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 164 | 69.8% | 83 min | 1.22% | C |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 5 | 40.0% | 23 min | 0.00% | F+ |
Spirit Airlines cancels 4.9% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Flight by flight
Flights on DTW to TPA
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 Tampa
Every airline on this route, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time, with its best departure time and most punctual flight number. No nearby airport pair beat these.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. DTW → TPADetroit to Tampa | Delta Air Lines | 80.5% | 81.5% | 1.22% | 5am–8am, Thu | DL 2852 07:00 |
| 2. DTW → TPADetroit to Tampa | Spirit Airlines | 67.3% | 70.8% | 4.94% | 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 16 points, against 11 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am529 flights85.0%
- 8am–11am474 flights80.4%
- 11am–2pm241 flights78.8%
- 2pm–5pm376 flights78.6%
- 5pm–8pm292 flights77.6%
- 8pm–5am378 flights68.8%
Scale runs 60% to 90%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 85.0% of the time, against 68.8% for the overnight window. That is 16 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 529 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DTW to TPA 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 TPA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 85.0% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 68.8%, a wide gap of 16.2 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am85.0%
- 8–11am80.4%
- 11am–2pm78.8%
- 2–5pm78.6%
- 5–8pm77.6%
- 8pm–5am68.8%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 34 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 61.8% on time, against 95.9% in September. 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 320 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 83.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 72.3%, a spread of 11 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 43% of the 31,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Carrier
- 28%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 43%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 13,000 of the 31,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 30,989 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 85.0% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.88% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.26%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.0% 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 983 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 81.2% on time across 2,292 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 2,290 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 TPA 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. September runs 95.9% on time and December 61.8%, a swing of 34 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 2,241 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DTW to TPA questions
How often is DTW to TPA 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 21.3% of the 2,290 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 TPA?
Delta Air Lines leads at 81.5% on time across 1,716 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 70.8%, a gap of 11 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 TPA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 85.0% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 68.8%, 16 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 TPA?
December is the weakest month at 61.8% on time, compared with 95.9% in September. Across the year that is 34 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
- TPA to DTW — the return legseparate record
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- Tampa International (TPA) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on DTW to TPA81.5%
- Spirit Airlines on DTW to TPA70.8%
- Frontier Airlines on DTW to TPA69.8%
- DTW to ORD, a related route72.2%
- ATL to TPA, a related route73.0%
- DTW to ATL, a related route78.9%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record81.5%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record70.8%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record69.8%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. DTW to TPA and TPA 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.