Route reliability record
ORF→DTW
Norfolk to Detroit
- Flights
- 715
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 529 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B, 2 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That rests on 715 ORF to DTW flights, with a median arrival 8 minutes early.
Best time to fly ORF to DTW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 88.7% of the time and Saturday flights 83.3%, against 78.9% 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
78.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 706 completed flights
Avg delay
101 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.26%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
81.0% on time across 564 flights
These figures cover 715 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.9% 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 ORF 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 1 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 564 | 81.0% | 94 min | 1.24% | B |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 150 | 70.9% | 118 min | 1.33% | 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.
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 18 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am282 flights88.7%
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm202 flights74.0%
- 2pm–5pm10 flights—
- 5pm–8pm221 flights71.0%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.7% of the time, against 71.0% for the evening window. That is 18 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 282 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter ORF 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 ORF to DTW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 88.7% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 71.0%, a wide gap of 17.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am88.7%
- 8–11am—
- 11am–2pm74.0%
- 2–5pm—
- 5–8pm71.0%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 32 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.
December is the weak month at 59.6% on time, against 92.1% in October. 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. August was the busiest month here, with 86 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 83.3% on time and Friday the weakest at 73.8%, a spread of 10 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 54% of the 15,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 54%Carrier
- 22%Late-arriving aircraft
- 17%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 54%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 8,166 of the 15,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 14,987 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.26% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
9.9% 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 529 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 75.6% on time across 715 flights, 3 points below this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 3 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 715 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in DTW after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 715 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 78.9% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 706 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
ORF to DTW questions
How often is ORF to DTW delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.1% of the 715 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
How reliable is ORF to DTW compared with the rest of the country?
78.9% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 2 points in its favour. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on ORF to DTW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.7% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 71.0%, 18 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 December delays on ORF to DTW?
December is the weakest month at 59.6% on time, compared with 92.1% in October. Across the year that is 32 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 ORF — the return legseparate record
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on ORF to DTW81.0%
- SkyWest Airlines on ORF to DTW70.9%
- ORF to ATL, a related route85.1%
- ORD to DTW, a related route71.1%
- ORF to CLT, a related route81.3%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record100.0%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record81.0%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record70.9%
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. ORF to DTW and DTW to ORF 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.