OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Detroit to San Francisco

2,079 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on DTW–SFO arrive on time 71% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate71%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay50 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled0.9%of scheduled flights

based on 1,775 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.

  • United Airlines
    On-time75%
    Medianon time
    p9045 min
    Cancel1.0%
    Flights387
  • Delta Air Lines
    On-time70%
    Medianon time
    p9050 min
    Cancel0.9%
    Flights1,388

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline41%
  • Weather6%
  • Air traffic (NAS)33%
  • Late aircraft19%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Airline.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline94%
  • Weather0%
  • Air traffic (NAS)6%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Airline. Shares are among 16 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 → SFO

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 66% to 80% on time.

  • Mornings80% on time · p90 30 min · 1,654 flights
  • Middays77% on time · p90 40 min · 971 flights
  • Afternoons73% on time · p90 45 min · 868 flights
  • Evenings71% on time · p90 60 min · 688 flights
  • Overnights66% on time · p90 60 min · 773 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 71% to 80% on time.

  • Tuesdays80% on time · p90 25 min · 665 flights
  • Wednesdays79% on time · p90 35 min · 677 flights
  • Saturdays76% on time · p90 40 min · 642 flights
  • Thursdays75% on time · p90 50 min · 748 flights
  • Mondays72% on time · p90 50 min · 738 flights
  • Sundays72% on time · p90 50 min · 742 flights
  • Fridays71% on time · p90 55 min · 742 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.