Route reliability record
MDW→DTW
Chicago to Detroit
- Flights
- 1,183
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 228 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a B. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 1,183 MDW to DTW flights, with a median arrival 3 minutes early.
Best time to fly MDW to DTW: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 88.9% of the time and Wednesday flights 80.0%, against 75.9% 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
75.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,163 completed flights
Avg delay
55 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.61%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Southwest
73.9% on time across 1,046 flights
These figures cover 1,183 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 3 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 MDW to DTW
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 137 | 91.2% | 64 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,046 | 73.9% | 55 min | 1.82% | C |
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.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Chicago 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. 4 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. ORD → DTWChicago to Detroit | Envoy Air | 75.6% | 78.2% | 3.38% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 2. ORD → DTWChicago to Detroit | Republic Airways | 75.5% | 79.2% | 4.63% | 11am–2pm, Sat | — |
| 3. ORD → DTWChicago to Detroit | Delta Air Lines | 74.8% | 77.3% | 3.20% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 2039 07:10 |
| 4. MDW → DTWChicago to Detroit | Southwest Airlines | 72.6% | 73.9% | 1.82% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
| 5. ORD → DTWChicago to Detroit | United Airlines | 69.3% | 70.0% | 0.97% | 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 24 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am62 flights87.1%
- 8am–11am354 flights88.9%
- 11am–2pm204 flights73.4%
- 2pm–5pm117 flights72.6%
- 5pm–8pm323 flights65.1%
- 8pm–5am123 flights68.0%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 88.9% of the time, against 65.1% for the evening window. That is 24 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 354 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MDW 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 MDW to DTW, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 88.9% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 65.1%, a wide gap of 23.8 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am87.1%
- 8–11am88.9%
- 11am–2pm73.4%
- 2–5pm72.6%
- 5–8pm65.1%
- 8pm–5am68.0%
best all US flightsScale 55% 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.
June is the worst month at 57.6% on time, 33 points below November, the best at 90.3%. 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 154 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 80.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 72.1%, a spread of 8 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 55% of the 15,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 55%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%Carrier
- 13%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 1%Security
55% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 15,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 18 to one. The split is drawn from 15,423 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 88.9% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.61% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.08%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.4% 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.
At 228 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 8am–11am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 73.9% on time across 1,184 flights, within 2 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 1,183 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. November runs 90.3% on time and June 57.6%, a swing of 33 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 1,163 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MDW to DTW questions
How often is MDW to DTW delayed?
About 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 24.1% of the 1,183 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
How reliable is MDW to DTW compared with the rest of the country?
75.9% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of about a point against it. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on MDW to DTW?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 88.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 65.1%, 24 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 June delays on MDW to DTW?
June is the weakest month at 57.6% on time, compared with 90.3% in November. 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 MDW — the return legseparate record
- Chicago Midway International (MDW) delay statistics
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- SkyWest Airlines on MDW to DTW91.2%
- Southwest Airlines on MDW to DTW73.9%
- MDW to ATL, a related route78.7%
- ORD to DTW, a related route71.1%
- MDW to PHX, a related route74.7%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record91.2%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record73.9%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. MDW to DTW and DTW to MDW 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.