OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Denver to Detroit

1,123 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on DEN–DTW arrive on time 76% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate76%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay45 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled0.4%of scheduled flights

based on 3,006 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

  • Delta Air Linesbest
    On-time85%
    Medianon time
    p9025 min
    Cancel0.5%
    Flights1,258
  • United Airlines
    On-time79%
    Medianon time
    p9040 min
    Cancel0.0%
    Flights727
  • Frontier Airlines
    On-time75%
    Medianon time
    p9060 min
    Cancel0.3%
    Flights372
  • Southwest Airlines
    On-time57%
    Median5 min
    p9065 min
    Cancel0.9%
    Flights649

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline32%
  • Weather3%
  • Air traffic (NAS)12%
  • Late aircraft53%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Late aircraft.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline38%
  • Weather46%
  • Air traffic (NAS)15%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Weather. Shares are among 13 cancellations with a reported cause (BTS reports causes from June 2003).

Over time

On-time trend

By season

On-time rate by month

When to fly

Best time to fly DEN → DTW

All airlines · rolling 36 months (2023-06 .. 2026-05).

Best time of day

On-time rates are fairly even by time of day on this route — ranging from 64% to 86% on time.

  • Mornings86% on time · p90 20 min · 2,250 flights
  • Early mornings85% on time · p90 25 min · 567 flights
  • Middays79% on time · p90 30 min · 2,519 flights
  • Afternoons76% on time · p90 40 min · 1,563 flights
  • Overnights66% on time · p90 90 min · 170 flights · limited
  • Evenings64% on time · p90 80 min · 1,978 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 74% to 80% on time.

  • Saturdays80% on time · p90 35 min · 1,236 flights
  • Wednesdays79% on time · p90 35 min · 1,217 flights
  • Tuesdays78% on time · p90 35 min · 1,265 flights
  • Mondays77% on time · p90 40 min · 1,354 flights
  • Sundays76% on time · p90 45 min · 1,277 flights
  • Thursdays76% on time · p90 45 min · 1,323 flights
  • Fridays74% on time · p90 45 min · 1,375 flights

Keep exploring

Related pages

Delay predictorfor this route→DEN airportDenver→DTW airportDetroit→Delta Air Linesairline profile→United Airlinesairline profile→Southwest Airlinesairline profile→Seasonal delay patternsguide→

Methodology

A flight is on time when it arrives within 15 minutes of schedule — the US DOT / BTS standard. Median and p90(the “1-in-10 bad day”) are read from the full arrival-delay distribution, never averaged across periods.

Figures cover a carrier’s own BTS-coded flights. Cells below ~200 flights are flagged as limited data. All numbers are pre-computed from public BTS On-Time Performance data.