Route profile
DTW→EWR
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Detroit to Newark, 488 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 13% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 10,363 flights. How this is calculated
DTW → EWR arrives on time 78.5% of the time; the return trip, EWR → DTW, arrives on time 79.7% of the time.
DTW → EWR spends 29.0 minutes on the ground on a 488-mile trip: 19.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DTW and 10.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at EWR.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
Why DTW → EWR flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DTW → EWR cancelled 363 of 10,363 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 29. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 53.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 53 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 363 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
195 cancellations, 53.7% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
109 cancellations, 30.0% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
59 cancellations, 16.3% of the total.
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.
363 coded cancellations were recorded on DTW → EWR; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
60 min late
against a median of 10 min early
DTW → EWR has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 10 min early, but the worst tenth are 70 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 10,363 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at EWR after arriving from DTW.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 33% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 16% | High risk |
| 90 min | 9.9% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.5% | 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 3.50% of the time and diverts 0.13% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 9,987 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 60 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 10,363 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DTW → EWR flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.8% of the time, against 67.4% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 21.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 87.6% on time from 704 flights
- 7 AM: 89.2% on time from 1,368 flights
- 8 AM: 91.4% on time from 352 flights
- 9 AM: 90.3% on time from 507 flights
- 10 AM: 83.7% on time from 1,346 flights
- 11 AM: 88.0% on time from 456 flights
- 12 PM: 92.0% on time from 290 flights
- 1 PM: 66.7% on time from 146 flights
- 2 PM: 69.6% on time from 1,106 flights
- 3 PM: 74.6% on time from 488 flights
- 4 PM: 79.3% on time from 381 flights
- 5 PM: 57.2% on time from 775 flights
- 6 PM: 73.1% on time from 470 flights
- 7 PM: 69.1% on time from 513 flights
- 8 PM: 69.6% on time from 165 flights
- 9 PM: 71.2% on time from 1,141 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why DTW → EWR runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
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 DTW → EWR. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
How this route holds up in bad weather
July 2023 – July 2026
Bad weather raises cancellations by a similar amount at both ends of DTW to EWR: 2.3 times the normal rate at DTW and 3.3 times at EWR. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: DTW 2.5% against 1.1%, EWR 6.9% against 2.1%. Flights that did leave DTW in bad weather arrived on time 66.5% of the time, against 81.6% in normal hours.
Bad weather and normal hours at the airports
Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026| Departures from | DTW | EWR |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled in bad weather | 2.5% | 6.9% |
| Cancelled in normal hours | 1.1% | 2.1% |
| Arrived on time, bad weather | 66.5% | 65.8% |
| Arrived on time, normal hours | 81.6% | 80.0% |
| Departures in bad weather | 53,809 | 51,613 |
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 Republic Airways (3.8% cancelled against 2.6% for the other carriers at DTW) the most.
This route’s airlines in bad weather at DTW
All departures from DTW| Airline | Bad-weather departures | Cancelled | Other carriers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 25,101 | 1.6%below the others | 3.3% |
| United Airlines | 1,025 | 1.4%below the others | 2.5% |
| Spirit Airlines | 4,380 | 3.3%above the others | 2.3% |
| Republic Airways | 2,294 | 3.8%above the others | 2.6% |
These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from DTW and EWR, 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), EWR, 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.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 4,878 | 75.5% | 2.03% | -7 min | 11.7% |
| Republic Airways | 3,587 | 81.2% | 5.44% | -13 min | 8.1% |
| Spirit Airlines | 1,073 | 76.3% | 5.13% | -10 min | 11.7% |
| United Airlines | 818 | 87.8% | 1.71% | -15 min | 6.4% |
Delta Air Lines flew 47.1% of the 10,356 flights listed. Republic Airways cancelled 5.44% of its flights here against 1.71% for United Airlines.
United Airlines arrived on time 12.3 percentage points more often than Delta Air Lines on this route.
Other ways to fly Detroit to New York
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DTW→LGA Detroit to New York | 12,501 | 80.0% | 3.11% | -9 min | 57 |
| DTW→EWR this route Detroit to Newark | 10,363 | 78.5% | 3.50% | -10 min | 49 |
DTW → LGA is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 80.0% on time, against 78.5% for DTW → EWR.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
DL2566 (7:00 AM) arrived on time 87.8% of the time, 21.6 points more often than DL2573 (2:15 PM) at 66.2%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 77.2%
- Feb: 82.2%
- Mar: 82.8%
- Apr: 80.4%
- May: 75.6%
- Jun: 75.4%
- Jul: 67.6%
- Aug: 77.4%
- Sep: 84.1%
- Oct: 83.8%
- Nov: 81.1%
- Dec: 76.0%
July is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 16.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 69.7% from 271 flights
- August 2023: 84.5% from 274 flights
- September 2023: 80.3% from 334 flights
- October 2023: 93.1% from 318 flights
- November 2023: 92.6% from 271 flights
- December 2023: 93.1% from 231 flights
- January 2024: 77.2% from 244 flights
- February 2024: 92.2% from 247 flights
- March 2024: 90.9% from 264 flights
- April 2024: 86.6% from 257 flights
- May 2024: 82.9% from 290 flights
- June 2024: 76.9% from 306 flights
- July 2024: 66.7% from 291 flights
- August 2024: 78.8% from 307 flights
- September 2024: 88.1% from 324 flights
- October 2024: 87.4% from 318 flights
- November 2024: 72.9% from 256 flights
- December 2024: 72.9% from 224 flights
- January 2025: 78.8% from 200 flights
- February 2025: 74.1% from 202 flights
- March 2025: 80.8% from 229 flights
- April 2025: 72.3% from 205 flights
- May 2025: 46.7% from 191 flights
- June 2025: 68.9% from 249 flights
- July 2025: 63.5% from 355 flights
- August 2025: 70.8% from 355 flights
- September 2025: 83.9% from 359 flights
- October 2025: 71.7% from 348 flights
- November 2025: 77.7% from 334 flights
- December 2025: 64.1% from 292 flights
- January 2026: 75.9% from 294 flights
- February 2026: 78.9% from 284 flights
- March 2026: 77.4% from 324 flights
- April 2026: 80.6% from 279 flights
- May 2026: 88.1% from 260 flights
- June 2026: 79.5% from 280 flights
- July 2026: 71.3% from 296 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.5% against 74.6% in the 12 months before — improving by 1.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 10,363 DTW → EWR 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