Carrier route record
DLJFK→DTW
Delta Air Lines · New York to Detroit
- Flights
- 770
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 63%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Delta Air Lines.
Delta on JFK to DTW carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.8% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about four flights in five arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 770 flights, with a median arrival 15 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate Delta on JFK to DTW from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
80.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 741 completed flights
Avg delay
94 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.77%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
75.6%
Every carrier on JFK to DTW, 1,215 flights
These figures cover 770 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Delta against every carrier on JFK to DTW
Delta flew 770 of the 1,215 flights on JFK to DTW, most of the route. Its 80.2% on time is 5 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 75.6%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from Delta at 80.2% to JetBlue at 67.4%.
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 (this page) | 770 | 80.2% | 94 min | 3.77% | B− |
| JetBlue Airways | 445 | 67.4% | 64 min | 6.07% | C− |
Flight by flight
Delta flight numbers on JFK to DTW
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 matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 19 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm222 flights89.8%
- 2pm–5pm307 flights79.9%
- 5pm–8pm235 flights71.0%
- 8pm–5am6 flights—
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The best window here is not the first bank but the 11am–2pm slot at 89.8% on time, ahead of 5pm–8pm at 71.0%. Where the curve peaks mid-day rather than at dawn, the constraint is usually congestion at one end rather than the aircraft's own rotation. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 307 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Delta on JFK to DTW through the year
August is the worst month at 67.5% on time, 22 points below September, the best at 89.7%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. October was the busiest month here, with 91 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 86.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 74.5%, a spread of 12 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Delta on JFK to DTW runs when it is late
Delta on JFK to DTW often beats the schedule: 381 of 741 completed flights, 51%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 147 late arrivals split 42 under half an hour, 37 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 68 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early381 flights51.4%
- Within 15 min213 flights28.7%
- 15–29 min late42 flights5.7%
- 30–59 min late37 flights5.0%
- 1–2 hours late34 flights4.6%
- 2+ hours late34 flights4.6%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 741 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
41 of 159 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 26% of them. 29 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for Delta on JFK to DTW
The latest arrival of the period was on 4 July 2026, 18 hours 8 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The five worst days are spread across July, May and January, with no single month standing out.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 4 July 2026 | 18 hours 8 minutes | Carrier |
| 9 July 2026 | 12 hours 57 minutes | Carrier |
| 19 May 2026 | 6 hours 24 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 18 January 2026 | 6 hours 4 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 20 May 2026 | 6 hours 1 minute | Extreme weather |
Delay causes
Why Delta runs late on this route
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 14,000 reported delay minutes.
- 40%Late-arriving aircraft
- 35%Carrier
- 21%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
40% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 14,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 to one. The split is drawn from 13,799 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 35%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 4,854 of the 14,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 3.77%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 25 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
9.2% 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 509 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 79.7% on time across 772 flights, within half a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 770 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 JFK to DTW
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.77% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 11am–2pm departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 741 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- JFK to DTW, every carrier
- Delta on DTW to JFK, the return leg
- JetBlue Airways on JFK to DTW67.4%
- Delta Air Lines network-wide record
- John F. Kennedy International (JFK) delay statistics
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.