Route reliability record
PHL→DTW
Philadelphia to Detroit
- Flights
- 3,000
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 453 mi
- Carriers
- 7
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.9% 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 3,000 PHL to DTW flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,582 at 82.3% on time.
Best time to fly PHL to DTW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 88.9% of the time and Tuesday flights 86.0%, against 79.1% 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
79.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,879 completed flights
Avg delay
99 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.90%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
82.3% on time across 1,582 flights
These figures cover 3,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.1% 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 PHL to DTW
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 82.3% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 74.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,010 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlinesthin sample | 107 | 86.8% | 61 min | 0.93% | A+ |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 82 | 85.2% | 128 min | 1.22% | A |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 56 | 83.9% | 87 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,582 | 82.3% | 106 min | 2.47% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 1,010 | 74.0% | 84 min | 7.03% | C− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 92 | 69.7% | 63 min | 3.26% | C− |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 71 | 66.7% | 221 min | 2.82% | C |
PSA Airlines cancels 7.0% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Flight by flight
Flights on PHL to DTW
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Philadelphia to Detroit
Every airline on this route, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time, with its best departure time and most punctual flight number. No nearby airport pair beat these.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. PHL → DTWPhiladelphia to Detroit | Delta Air Lines | 80.3% | 82.3% | 2.47% | 5am–8am, Tue | DL 1540 06:00 |
| 2. PHL → DTWPhiladelphia to Detroit | PSA Airlines | 68.8% | 74.0% | 7.03% | 8am–11am, 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 21 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am482 flights88.9%
- 8am–11am742 flights84.2%
- 11am–2pm532 flights82.1%
- 2pm–5pm301 flights69.4%
- 5pm–8pm444 flights67.7%
- 8pm–5am499 flights74.4%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.9% of the time, against 67.7% for the evening window. That is 21 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 742 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PHL 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 PHL to DTW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 88.9% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 67.7%, a wide gap of 21.2 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am88.9%
- 8–11am84.2%
- 11am–2pm82.1%
- 2–5pm69.4%
- 5–8pm67.7%
- 8pm–5am74.4%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 23 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 65.6% on time, against 88.7% 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. August was the busiest month here, with 315 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 86.0% on time and Friday the weakest at 75.1%, a spread of 11 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
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 59,000 reported delay minutes.
- 41%Late-arriving aircraft
- 38%Carrier
- 14%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
41% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 59,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 59,342 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 38%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 23,000 of the 59,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 3.90%, 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 actually costs
10.1% 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.
At 453 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 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 78.4% on time across 3,000 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.
The sample behind these figures is 3,000 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 delay figures matter less here than the 3.90% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 2,879 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PHL to DTW questions
How often is PHL 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 20.9% of the 3,000 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on PHL to DTW?
Delta Air Lines leads at 82.3% on time across 1,582 flights. PSA Airlines is at the other end on 74.0%, a gap of 8 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on PHL to DTW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 67.7%, 21 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 PHL to DTW?
December is the weakest month at 65.6% on time, compared with 88.7% in September. Across the year that is 23 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 PHL — the return legseparate record
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- American Airlines on PHL to DTW86.8%
- Delta Air Lines on PHL to DTW82.3%
- PSA Airlines on PHL to DTW74.0%
- PHL to ATL, a related route78.0%
- ORD to DTW, a related route71.1%
- PHL to MCO, a related route72.4%
- American Airlines on-time record86.8%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record85.2%
- Republic Airways on-time record83.9%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. PHL to DTW and DTW to PHL 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.