DTW → DFW Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · DTWNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:53 UTC

Detroit airport profile →

Destination · DFWNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:53 UTC

Dallas–Fort Worth airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

56/ 100Fair

Better than 27% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 11,251 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

75.3%

8,285 of 10,996

Cancellation rate

1.71%

192 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-6 min

Average 9.1 min

Severe delays

9.1%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

74 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

11,251

4 carriers

DTW → DFW arrives on time 75.3% of the time; the return trip, DFW → DTW, arrives on time 75.7% of the time.

DTW → DFW spends 31.4 minutes on the ground on a 986-mile trip: 16.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DTW and 14.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at DFW.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

What stands out

This route has stayed remarkably steady year over year, a smaller swing than 97% of 5,368 comparable routes.

75.2% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 75.4% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07), virtually unchanged.

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 5,368 in the comparison.

Why DTW → DFW flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

DTW → DFW cancelled 192 of 11,251 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 59. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 66.1% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 89 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Weather66.1%

Airline31.8%

Air traffic2.1%

Security0.0%

Of 192 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

Extreme weather1 in 89

Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.

127 cancellations, 66.1% of the total.

The airline1 in 184

Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.

61 cancellations, 31.8% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 2,813

Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.

4 cancellations, 2.1% of the total.

Security—

A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.

0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.

Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.

192 coded cancellations were recorded on DTW → DFW; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

55 min late

against a median of 6 min early

Arrived an hour or more late9.1%

Typical delay when late74 min

Cancelled1.71%

Landed somewhere else0.56%

DTW → DFW has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 6 min early, but the worst tenth are 61 minutes worse than that. If the trip has something unmissable at the end of it, the median is the wrong number to plan against.

Percentiles over 11,251 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at DFW after arriving from DTW.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, DTW → DFW arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	40%	Likely to miss
45 min	24%	High risk
60 min	16%	High risk
90 min	8.9%	Some risk
120 min	5.5%	Some 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 1.71% of the time and diverts 0.56% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 10,996 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 55 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 11,251 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

DTW → DFW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 82.4% of the time, against 64.2% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 18.2 percentage points.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (DTW).

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 7.6 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 2.5 points.

On-time arrival rate for DTW to DFW by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
5 AM–6 AM
6 AM–7 AM
7 AM–8 AM
8 AM–9 AM
9 AM–10 AM
10 AM–11 AM
11 AM–12 PM
12 PM–1 PM
1 PM–2 PM
2 PM–3 PM
3 PM–4 PM
4 PM–5 PM
5 PM–6 PM
6 PM–7 PM
7 PM–8 PM
8 PM–9 PM

On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time

50–59
60–69
70–79
80–89
90–99

Fewer than 120 flights, not scored

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · On time is arrival within 15 minutes of schedule. Cells round to whole percentages; the table shows one decimal.

No slot is named best or worst: too few reach 500 flights. Departures after 9 PM (493 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday for DTW to DFW. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
5 AM–6 AM	86.9% on time138 flights	88.6% on time133 flights	89.7% on time128 flights	89.4% on time135 flights	88.7% on time136 flights	88.7% on time125 flights	84.7% on time125 flights
6 AM–7 AM	69 flights, too few to score	60 flights, too few to score	56 flights, too few to score	74 flights, too few to score	71 flights, too few to score	64 flights, too few to score	72 flights, too few to score
7 AM–8 AM	83.6% on time124 flights	88.4% on time126 flights	81.9% on time121 flights	85.6% on time128 flights	82.4% on time121 flights	82.1% on time120 flights	78.2% on time131 flights
8 AM–9 AM	80.5% on time180 flights	83.1% on time168 flights	80.4% on time170 flights	78.0% on time177 flights	69.7% on time181 flights	76.0% on time171 flights	75.6% on time176 flights
9 AM–10 AM	12 flights, too few to score	3 flights, too few to score	3 flights, too few to score	13 flights, too few to score	9 flights, too few to score	14 flights, too few to score	12 flights, too few to score
10 AM–11 AM	7 flights, too few to score	0 flights, too few to score	4 flights, too few to score	9 flights, too few to score	7 flights, too few to score	9 flights, too few to score	6 flights, too few to score
11 AM–12 PM	85.9% on time130 flights	115 flights, too few to score	80.2% on time123 flights	79.5% on time124 flights	79.9% on time137 flights	117 flights, too few to score	75.8% on time125 flights
12 PM–1 PM	84.0% on time193 flights	84.9% on time189 flights	80.5% on time192 flights	79.0% on time196 flights	79.1% on time192 flights	84.1% on time180 flights	78.8% on time189 flights
1 PM–2 PM	23 flights, too few to score	20 flights, too few to score	33 flights, too few to score	22 flights, too few to score	25 flights, too few to score	25 flights, too few to score	22 flights, too few to score
2 PM–3 PM	19 flights, too few to score	10 flights, too few to score	11 flights, too few to score	11 flights, too few to score	14 flights, too few to score	18 flights, too few to score	12 flights, too few to score
3 PM–4 PM	69.6% on time224 flights	74.1% on time216 flights	71.1% on time221 flights	72.6% on time206 flights	70.0% on time215 flights	78.5% on time137 flights	66.2% on time199 flights
4 PM–5 PM	85 flights, too few to score	88 flights, too few to score	91 flights, too few to score	88 flights, too few to score	90 flights, too few to score	92 flights, too few to score	87 flights, too few to score
5 PM–6 PM	77 flights, too few to score	74 flights, too few to score	70 flights, too few to score	82 flights, too few to score	75 flights, too few to score	75 flights, too few to score	80 flights, too few to score
6 PM–7 PM	38 flights, too few to score	30 flights, too few to score	38 flights, too few to score	22 flights, too few to score	34 flights, too few to score	43 flights, too few to score	31 flights, too few to score
7 PM–8 PM	62.9% on time171 flights	97 flights, too few to score	71.1% on time125 flights	70.8% on time200 flights	67.7% on time171 flights	113 flights, too few to score	61.8% on time199 flights
8 PM–9 PM	56.6% on time132 flights	114 flights, too few to score	117 flights, too few to score	118 flights, too few to score	61.7% on time131 flights	86 flights, too few to score	53.0% on time121 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM82.4%

9 AM–12 PM79.1%

12–3 PM80.4%

3–6 PM71.2%

6–9 PM64.2%

9 PM–5 AM71.3%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why DTW → DFW runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Late-arriving aircraft37.6%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

The airline36.5%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Air traffic control22.8%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Weather3.1%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security0.1%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for DTW → DFW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DTW → DFW, at 37.6%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 82.4% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 64.2%.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

The harder-hit end is DFW, where the flight lands. Its figure counts departures from DFW, so it says more about how that airport copes than about this route. Bad weather cancels 7.0 times the normal rate at DFW against 2.3 times at DTW. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: DTW 2.5% against 1.1%, DFW 10.4% against 1.5%. Flights that did leave DFW in bad weather arrived on time 56.4% of the time, against 74.4% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from DTW and DFW in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	DTW	DFW
Cancelled in bad weather	2.5%	10.4%
Cancelled in normal hours	1.1%	1.5%
Arrived on time, bad weather	66.5%	56.4%
Arrived on time, normal hours	81.6%	74.4%
Departures in bad weather	53,809	72,822

Of the carriers on this route, Delta Air Lines (1.6% cancelled against 3.3% for the other carriers at DTW) cancelled the fewest departures from DTW in bad weather and Spirit Airlines (3.3% cancelled against 2.3% for the other carriers at DTW) the most.

This route’s airlines in bad weather at DTW

All departures from DTW

Cancellation rates in bad weather at DTW for the airlines that fly DTW to DFW, against the other carriers at DTW in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
Delta Air Lines	25,101	1.6%below the others	3.3%
Frontier Airlines	1,150	2.5%about level	2.8%
American Airlines	2,327	3.1%above the others	2.4%
Spirit Airlines	4,380	3.3%above the others	2.3%

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from DTW and DFW, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from DTW on every route.

Weather source and limits. In full: DTW (airlines), DFW, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.

Airlines on this route

Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.

Airlines on this route
Carrier	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Severe
American Airlines	5,174	77.7%	2.13%	-9 min	8.8%
Delta Air Lines	4,320	74.9%	1.20%	-4 min	8.8%
Spirit Airlines	1,170	73.8%	1.11%	-7 min	8.2%
Frontier Airlines	503	59.0%	2.98%	5 min	15.6%

American Airlines flew 46.3% of the 11,167 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 2.98% of its flights here against 1.11% for Spirit Airlines.

American Airlines arrived on time 18.7 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.

Flights on this route

Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.

Flights on this route
Flight	Scheduled	Operations	On time
DL1207 Delta Air Lines	8:40 PM	999	68.1%
AA1108 American Airlines	5:01 AM	971	86.6%
DL1543 Delta Air Lines	3:50 PM	929	71.8%
DL1041 Delta Air Lines	12:40 PM	878	81.6%
DL2746 Delta Air Lines	8:25 AM	758	79.1%

AA1108 (5:01 AM) arrived on time 86.6% of the time, 18.5 points more often than DL1207 (8:40 PM) at 68.1%.

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon74.1%

Tue79.7%

Wed77.4%

Thu75.9%

Fri73.7%

Sat75.8%

Sun71.5%

Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 8.2 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

January is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 16.0 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 75.2% against 75.4% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 11,251 DTW → DFW 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

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

DTW airport DFW airport Return direction DFW → DTW

DTW→DFW

Right now

Route reliability

What stands out

Why DTW → DFW flights are cancelled

Share of cancellations

What each reason means

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By day and hour

By departure window

By departure hour

Why DTW → DFW runs late

How this route holds up in bad weather

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

This route’s airlines in bad weather at DTW

Airlines on this route

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology