Route profile
DEN→DTW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Denver to Detroit, 1,123 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 60% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 9,386 flights. How this is calculated
DEN → DTW arrives on time 77.8% of the time; the return trip, DTW → DEN, arrives on time 80.0% of the time, a 2.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DEN → DTW spends 27.3 minutes on the ground on a 1,123-mile trip: 17.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DEN and 9.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at DTW.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
The airline matters unusually much on this route, a wider carrier-to-carrier gap than 95% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 84.7% of the time, against 63.6% for Southwest Airlines, flying the exact same route.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 2,692 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where DEN to DTW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DEN to DTW struggles most at 6 PM: 54.1% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 13.5 points behind the 67.6% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 14.5 points.
DEN to DTW is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 4 PM: 77.3% arrive on time, 9.1 points ahead of the 68.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.6 points.
November is kinder to DEN to DTW than to routes of similar length: 86.5% on time against 82.7%, 3.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 3.1 points.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on DEN to DTW arrive on time 63.6% of the time, 11.8 points below the 75.4% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 13.8 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on DEN to DTW than on its routes of similar length: 84.7% on time here, 80.6% there, 4.1 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 3.2 points.
DEN to DTW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 54.1% | routes of similar length | 67.6% | −13.5 pts | 255 here, 161,574 there |
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 77.3% | routes of similar length | 68.2% | +9.1 pts | 507 here, 144,118 there |
| Month: November | 86.5% | routes of similar length | 82.7% | +3.8 pts | 717 here, 205,751 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 63.6% | routes of similar length | 75.4% | −11.8 pts | 1,938 here, 585,331 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 84.7% | routes of similar length | 80.6% | +4.1 pts | 3,908 here, 426,195 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 1,123 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
44 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 9,386 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DTW after arriving from DEN.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 40% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 22% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.1% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.0% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 0.49% of the time and diverts 0.20% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 9,321 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 44 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 9,386 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DEN → DTW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.3% of the time, against 56.5% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 31.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM: 88.1% on time from 501 flights
- 1 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 86.4% on time from 242 flights
- 6 AM: 88.1% on time from 984 flights
- 7 AM: 91.0% on time from 337 flights
- 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 86.2% on time from 713 flights
- 10 AM: 81.7% on time from 1,428 flights
- 11 AM: 80.7% on time from 683 flights
- 12 PM: 75.1% on time from 286 flights
- 1 PM: 72.6% on time from 202 flights
- 2 PM: 69.2% on time from 146 flights
- 3 PM: 77.4% on time from 912 flights
- 4 PM: 77.3% on time from 510 flights
- 5 PM: 69.1% on time from 1,310 flights
- 6 PM: 54.1% on time from 258 flights
- 7 PM: 54.7% on time from 558 flights
- 8 PM: 66.3% on time from 164 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why DEN → DTW runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for DEN → DTW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DEN → DTW, at 49.8%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 88.3% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 56.5%.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 3,937 | 84.7% | 0.53% | -8 min | 4.7% |
| United Airlines | 2,247 | 78.8% | 0.40% | -5 min | 8.2% |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,950 | 63.6% | 0.41% | 5 min | 10.3% |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,250 | 76.4% | 0.64% | -5 min | 8.5% |
Delta Air Lines flew 42.0% of the 9,384 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 21.1 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
DL1745 (6:15 AM) arrived on time 89.1% of the time, 18.0 points more often than UA1220 (5:20 PM) at 71.1%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 4.9 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 75.1%
- Feb: 77.2%
- Mar: 78.7%
- Apr: 79.2%
- May: 73.2%
- Jun: 72.2%
- Jul: 71.9%
- Aug: 73.7%
- Sep: 85.2%
- Oct: 83.0%
- Nov: 86.5%
- Dec: 80.5%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 14.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 68.8% from 247 flights
- August 2023: 71.9% from 269 flights
- September 2023: 85.2% from 265 flights
- October 2023: 80.4% from 286 flights
- November 2023: 87.5% from 257 flights
- December 2023: 81.3% from 241 flights
- January 2024: 72.4% from 236 flights
- February 2024: 75.2% from 216 flights
- March 2024: 77.2% from 242 flights
- April 2024: 74.7% from 249 flights
- May 2024: 72.9% from 259 flights
- June 2024: 74.5% from 257 flights
- July 2024: 73.8% from 267 flights
- August 2024: 78.0% from 271 flights
- September 2024: 89.9% from 267 flights
- October 2024: 87.3% from 275 flights
- November 2024: 83.0% from 237 flights
- December 2024: 85.6% from 243 flights
- January 2025: 74.9% from 207 flights
- February 2025: 79.3% from 198 flights
- March 2025: 79.8% from 242 flights
- April 2025: 79.0% from 239 flights
- May 2025: 72.2% from 256 flights
- June 2025: 66.9% from 279 flights
- July 2025: 70.4% from 287 flights
- August 2025: 71.3% from 282 flights
- September 2025: 80.5% from 256 flights
- October 2025: 81.4% from 258 flights
- November 2025: 88.9% from 228 flights
- December 2025: 74.5% from 242 flights
- January 2026: 78.1% from 217 flights
- February 2026: 77.2% from 215 flights
- March 2026: 79.0% from 278 flights
- April 2026: 83.7% from 257 flights
- May 2026: 74.4% from 282 flights
- June 2026: 75.4% from 286 flights
- July 2026: 74.2% from 293 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.0% against 78.7% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 9,386 DEN → DTW flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed