OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Detroit to Boston

632 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on DTW–BOS arrive on time 72% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate72%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay60 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled2.0%of scheduled flights

based on 2,469 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

Too close to call — no single carrier is clearly more on-time here.

  • Spirit Airlines
    On-time77%
    Medianon time
    p9065 min
    Cancel0.0%
    Flights61
  • Delta Air Lines
    On-time73%
    Medianon time
    p9060 min
    Cancel1.9%
    Flights1,711
  • JetBlue Airways
    On-time71%
    Medianon time
    p9065 min
    Cancel2.6%
    Flights697

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline35%
  • Weather1%
  • Air traffic (NAS)40%
  • Late aircraft23%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Air traffic (NAS).

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline36%
  • Weather44%
  • Air traffic (NAS)20%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Weather. Shares are among 50 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 → BOS

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 · 1,964 flights
  • Middays82% on time · p90 30 min · 2,124 flights
  • Afternoons71% on time · p90 60 min · 1,165 flights
  • Overnights69% on time · p90 65 min · 1,433 flights
  • Evenings62% on time · p90 90 min · 1,352 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 71% to 82% on time.

  • Saturdays82% on time · p90 30 min · 1,016 flights
  • Wednesdays80% on time · p90 45 min · 1,121 flights
  • Tuesdays79% on time · p90 50 min · 1,128 flights
  • Thursdays74% on time · p90 55 min · 1,191 flights
  • Fridays73% on time · p90 55 min · 1,203 flights
  • Mondays73% on time · p90 60 min · 1,198 flights
  • Sundays71% on time · p90 60 min · 1,181 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.