Carrier route record
NKLAS→DTW
Spirit Airlines · Las Vegas to Detroit
- Flights
- 563
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 20%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Spirit Airlines.
Spirit on LAS to DTW lands a B, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 563 flights, with a median arrival 10 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Spirit on LAS 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
80.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 555 completed flights
Avg delay
88 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.24%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
81.7%
Every carrier on LAS to DTW, 2,838 flights
These figures cover 563 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 10 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.
Carrier by carrier
Spirit against every carrier on LAS to DTW
Spirit flew 563 of the 2,838 flights on LAS to DTW, about 20% of it. Its 80.7% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 81.7%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Delta at 84.4% to Southwest at 68.0%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,894 | 84.4% | 74 min | 0.53% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 44 | 84.1% | 47 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlines (this page) | 563 | 80.7% | 88 min | 1.24% | B |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 337 | 68.0% | 44 min | 0.00% | C+ |
Departure window
When Spirit runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 16 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am102 flights92.0%
- 11am–2pm128 flights78.7%
- 2pm–5pm29 flights—
- 5pm–8pm34 flights76.5%
- 8pm–5am270 flights77.8%
Scale runs 70% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 92.0% of the time, against 76.5% for the evening 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 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 270 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Spirit on LAS to DTW through the year
October is the best month on the calendar at 92.5% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. October was the busiest month here, with 109 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 87.2% on time and Monday the weakest at 71.6%. 16 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why Spirit runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 49% of the 9,404 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 49%Carrier
- 26%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 49%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 4,592 of the 9,404 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 9,404 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.24% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.18%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
7.2% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 1,749 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
The return leg runs 81.1% on time across 564 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. 563 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 Spirit on LAS to DTW
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 563 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 80.7% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 555 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- LAS to DTW, every carrier
- Spirit on DTW to LAS, the return leg
- Delta Air Lines on LAS to DTW84.4%
- Southwest Airlines on LAS to DTW68.0%
- Spirit Airlines network-wide record
- Harry Reid International (LAS) delay statistics
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.