Carrier route record
DLMIA→DTW
Delta Air Lines · Miami to Detroit
- Flights
- 930
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 53%
- Carriers
- 6
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Delta Air Lines.
Delta on MIA to DTW lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That rests on 930 flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate Delta on MIA 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
76.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 919 completed flights
Avg delay
92 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.08%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
73.5%
Every carrier on MIA to DTW, 1,755 flights
These figures cover 930 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 6 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
Delta against every carrier on MIA to DTW
Delta flew 930 of the 1,755 flights on MIA to DTW, most of the route. Its 76.9% on time is 3 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 73.5%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of six carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 82.4% to Republic at 57.1%. Four 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 108 | 82.4% | 52 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 930 | 76.9% | 92 min | 1.08% | B |
| American Airlines | 394 | 70.4% | 64 min | 1.02% | C |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 64 | 67.7% | 88 min | 3.12% | C− |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 245 | 63.8% | 69 min | 4.08% | D− |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 14 | 57.1% | 126 min | 0.00% | D+ |
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 25 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am249 flights89.9%
- 11am–2pm360 flights77.8%
- 2pm–5pm4 flights—
- 5pm–8pm290 flights65.3%
- 8pm–5am27 flights—
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 89.9% of the time, against 65.3% for the evening window. That is 25 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 360 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Delta on MIA to DTW through the year
December is the weak month at 62.9% on time, against 90.0% 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. January was the busiest month here, with 93 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 81.8% on time and Friday the weakest at 71.0%, a spread of 11 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Delta on MIA to DTW runs when it is late
Delta on MIA to DTW often beats the schedule: 287 of 919 completed flights, 31%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 212 late arrivals split 71 under half an hour, 70 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 71 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early287 flights31.2%
- Within 15 min420 flights45.7%
- 15–29 min late71 flights7.7%
- 30–59 min late70 flights7.6%
- 1–2 hours late38 flights4.1%
- 2+ hours late33 flights3.6%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 919 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
39 of 196 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 20% of them. In the other direction, 55 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at DTW.
The worst days
Worst days for Delta on MIA to DTW
The latest arrival of the period was on 15 June 2026, 18 hours 14 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). Three of the five worst days fell in June 2026.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 15 June 2026 | 18 hours 14 minutes | Carrier |
| 7 December 2025 | 17 hours 45 minutes | Carrier |
| 3 June 2026 | 17 hours 7 minutes | Carrier |
| 6 December 2025 | 14 hours 15 minutes | Carrier |
| 20 June 2026 | 13 hours 57 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why Delta runs late on this route
Carrier accounts for 50% of the 19,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 50%Carrier
- 30%Late-arriving aircraft
- 12%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 50%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 9,806 of the 19,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 19,461 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 89.9% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.08% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.11%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
7.7% 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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 1,145 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 79.1% on time across 929 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.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 930 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 MIA to DTW
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 930 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 76.9% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 919 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- MIA to DTW, every carrier
- Delta on DTW to MIA, the return leg
- Envoy Air on MIA to DTW82.4%
- American Airlines on MIA to DTW70.4%
- Spirit Airlines on MIA to DTW63.8%
- Delta Air Lines network-wide record
- Miami International (MIA) delay statistics
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.