Route reliability record
PVD→DTW
Providence to Detroit
- Flights
- 840
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 615 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That rests on 840 PVD to DTW flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
Best time to fly PVD to DTW: a 11am–2pm departure, ideally on a Monday. Flights in that window arrived on time 80.8% of the time and Monday flights 82.6%, against 76.2% 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
76.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 816 completed flights
Avg delay
104 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.50%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
SkyWest
75.5% on time across 746 flights
These figures cover 840 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.5% 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 PVD 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 94 | 81.8% | 108 min | 5.32% | B− |
| SkyWest Airlines | 746 | 75.5% | 103 min | 2.14% | B |
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 Providence 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. 2 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. BOS → DTWBoston to Detroit | Delta Air Lines | 76.4% | 78.1% | 2.21% | 5am–8am, Sat | DL 1019 05:30 |
| 2. PVD → DTWProvidence to Detroit | SkyWest Airlines | 73.9% | 75.5% | 2.14% | 11am–2pm, Mon (route) | — |
| 3. BOS → DTWBoston to Detroit | JetBlue Airways | 65.8% | 68.9% | 4.55% | 5am–8am, Mon | — |
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 18 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am323 flights80.3%
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm219 flights80.8%
- 2pm–5pm89 flights63.2%
- 5pm–8pm209 flights70.9%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 55% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The best window here is not the first bank but the 11am–2pm slot at 80.8% on time, ahead of 2pm–5pm at 63.2%. Where the curve peaks mid-day rather than at dawn, the constraint is usually congestion at one end rather than the aircraft's own rotation. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 323 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PVD 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 PVD to DTW, the best departure window is 11am–2pm at 80.8% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 63.2%, a wide gap of 17.6 points. All US flights leaving 11am–2pm ran 78.3%.
- 5–8am80.3%
- 8–11am—
- 11am–2pm80.8%
- 2–5pm63.2%
- 5–8pm70.9%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 28 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.
January is the weak month at 61.2% on time, against 89.5% 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 93 flights.
Across the week, Monday is the strongest day at 82.6% on time and Saturday the weakest at 69.0%, a spread of 14 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 68% of the 20,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 68%Carrier
- 19%Extreme weather
- 10%National Airspace System
- 2%Late-arriving aircraft
- 0%Security
Extreme weather accounts for 19% of delay minutes, well above the single-digit share typical across the system. Weather delays are lumpy: they arrive as whole bad days rather than as a steady drag, so the monthly strip above is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 6%, so this operation carries roughly 3.2 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 20,077 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 68%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 14,000 of the 20,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 2.50%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 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
12.5% 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 615 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 76.5% on time across 840 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. 840 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. 840 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 76.2% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 816 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PVD to DTW questions
How often is PVD 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 23.8% of the 840 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
How reliable is PVD to DTW compared with the rest of the country?
76.2% 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 PVD to DTW?
The 11am–2pm departure window is the strongest at 80.8% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 63.2%, 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 January delays on PVD to DTW?
January is the weakest month at 61.2% on time, compared with 89.5% in October. Across the year that is 28 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 PVD — the return legseparate record
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- PVD to DCA, a related route71.0%
- ORD to DTW, a related route71.1%
- PVD to BWI, a related route86.9%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record81.8%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record75.5%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. PVD to DTW and DTW to PVD 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.