OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Detroit to Atlanta

594 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on DTW–ATL arrive on time 77% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate77%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay45 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled0.9%of scheduled flights

based on 4,881 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-time80%
    Medianon time
    p9035 min
    Cancel0.6%
    Flights3,701
  • Spirit Airlines
    On-time73%
    Medianon time
    p9055 min
    Cancel1.7%
    Flights755
  • Frontier Airlines
    On-time64%
    Medianon time
    p9080 min
    Cancel2.1%
    Flights425

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline47%
  • Weather4%
  • Air traffic (NAS)20%
  • Late aircraft29%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Airline.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline49%
  • Weather49%
  • Air traffic (NAS)2%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Airline. Shares are among 43 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 DTW → ATL

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

Best time of day

Mornings are the most reliable time of day to fly this route — 87% on time.

  • Mornings87% on time · p90 15 min · 5,260 flights
  • Middays81% on time · p90 35 min · 2,907 flights
  • Afternoons78% on time · p90 40 min · 2,770 flights
  • Evenings72% on time · p90 60 min · 2,560 flights
  • Overnights71% on time · p90 65 min · 1,549 flights

Best day of week

Wednesdays are the most reliable day to fly this route — 85% on time.

  • Wednesdays85% on time · p90 25 min · 2,049 flights
  • Tuesdays82% on time · p90 30 min · 2,015 flights
  • Saturdays81% on time · p90 35 min · 1,999 flights
  • Thursdays80% on time · p90 40 min · 2,246 flights
  • Fridays79% on time · p90 40 min · 2,269 flights
  • Mondays78% on time · p90 45 min · 2,233 flights
  • Sundays75% on time · p90 50 min · 2,235 flights

Keep exploring

Related pages

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.