Route reliability record
FLL→DTW
Fort Lauderdale to Detroit
- Flights
- 2,705
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,127 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 5 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 2,705 FLL to DTW flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,810 at 78.6% on time.
Best time to fly FLL to DTW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 88.5% of the time and Wednesday flights 81.9%, against 72.3% for the route overall.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so this route runs 5 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 50 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
72.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,643 completed flights
Avg delay
73 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.14%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
78.6% on time across 1,810 flights
These figures cover 2,705 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on FLL to DTW
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 78.6% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 58.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 640 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,810 | 78.6% | 70 min | 1.55% | B |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 108 | 69.2% | 71 min | 3.70% | C− |
| Spirit Airlines | 640 | 58.3% | 74 min | 3.28% | D− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 147 | 55.6% | 81 min | 3.40% | D− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 3.3% 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 FLL to DTW
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 Fort Lauderdale to Detroit
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. FLL → DTWFort Lauderdale to Detroit | Delta Air Lines | 77.4% | 78.6% | 1.55% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 2631 06:00 |
| 2. MIA → DTWMiami to Detroit | Delta Air Lines | 76.1% | 76.9% | 1.08% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
| 3. MIA → DTWMiami to Detroit | American Airlines | 69.7% | 70.4% | 1.02% | 5pm–8pm, Fri | — |
| 4. FLL → DTWFort Lauderdale to Detroit | Spirit Airlines | 56.4% | 58.3% | 3.28% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
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 33 points, against 20 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am523 flights88.5%
- 8am–11am194 flights83.7%
- 11am–2pm547 flights76.5%
- 2pm–5pm595 flights70.7%
- 5pm–8pm345 flights60.8%
- 8pm–5am501 flights55.7%
Scale runs 45% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 55.7% on time, against 88.5% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 595 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter FLL to DTW 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 FLL to DTW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 88.5% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 55.7%, a wide gap of 32.8 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am88.5%
- 8–11am83.7%
- 11am–2pm76.5%
- 2–5pm70.7%
- 5–8pm60.8%
- 8pm–5am55.7%
best all US flightsScale 45% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 33 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.
Delays peak in March, when the on-time rate falls to 57.1%. June is the strongest month at 90.6%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 33 points. March was the busiest month here, with 328 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 81.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 58.4%, a spread of 24 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 45% of the 53,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 17%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
45% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 53,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 22 to one. The split is drawn from 53,158 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 36%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 19,000 of the 53,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 2.14% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.15%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
11.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The 1,127 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 71.5% on time across 2,692 flights, within about a point 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 2,705 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 DTW 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 90.6% on time and March 57.1%, a swing of 33 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of March before you think about anything else. 2,643 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
FLL to DTW questions
How often is FLL to DTW delayed?
Roughly one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 27.7% of the 2,705 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on FLL to DTW?
Delta Air Lines leads at 78.6% on time across 1,810 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 58.3%, a gap of 20 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 FLL to DTW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.5% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 55.7%, 33 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 March delays on FLL to DTW?
March is the weakest month at 57.1% on time, compared with 90.6% in June. Across the year that is 33 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
- DTW to FLL — the return legseparate record
- Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL) delay statistics
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on FLL to DTW78.6%
- JetBlue Airways on FLL to DTW69.2%
- Spirit Airlines on FLL to DTW58.3%
- Frontier Airlines on FLL to DTW55.6%
- FLL to ATL, a related route71.0%
- ORD to DTW, a related route71.1%
- FLL to LGA, a related route64.8%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record78.6%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record69.2%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record58.3%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
Direction matters. FLL to DTW and DTW to FLL 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.