Route profile
DTW→FLL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Detroit to Fort Lauderdale, 1,127 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 38% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,890 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
DTW → FLL arrives on time 75.8% of the time; the return trip, FLL → DTW, arrives on time 77.5% of the time.
DTW → FLL spends 25.4 minutes on the ground on a 1,127-mile trip: 17.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DTW and 8.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at FLL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every airline on this route performs about the same, a narrower carrier gap than 91% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Delta Air Lines (76.7% on time) and Spirit Airlines (74.9%) are close together here.
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 DTW to FLL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DTW to FLL struggles most at 8 AM: 69.0% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 16.8 points behind the 85.8% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 16.9 points.
DTW to FLL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 78.9% arrive on time, 11.6 points ahead of the 67.3% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9.1 points.
In January, DTW to FLL runs 12 points below routes of similar length, 64.8% on time to 76.8%. Against all other routes the gap is 14.3 points.
September is kinder to DTW to FLL than to routes of similar length: 88.5% on time against 81.5%, 7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 6.1 points.
Delta Air Lines’ flights on DTW to FLL arrive on time 76.7% of the time, 3.8 points below the 80.5% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 4.8 points.
DTW to FLL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 AM departures | 69.0% | routes of similar length | 85.8% | −16.8 pts | 210 here, 169,657 there |
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 78.9% | routes of similar length | 67.3% | +11.6 pts | 223 here, 151,073 there |
| Month: January | 64.8% | routes of similar length | 76.8% | −12.0 pts | 673 here, 193,832 there |
| Month: September | 88.5% | routes of similar length | 81.5% | +7.0 pts | 468 here, 186,594 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 76.7% | routes of similar length | 80.5% | −3.8 pts | 5,056 here, 410,390 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 1,127 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.
Why DTW → FLL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DTW → FLL cancelled 98 of 7,890 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 81. The reason filed most often was the airline, 59.2% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 136 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 98 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
58 cancellations, 59.2% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
33 cancellations, 33.7% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
7 cancellations, 7.1% 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. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
98 coded cancellations were recorded on DTW → FLL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
51 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 7,890 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at FLL after arriving from DTW.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 39% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 23% | High risk |
| 60 min | 16% | High risk |
| 90 min | 8.3% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.0% | 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 1.24% of the time and diverts 0.32% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,767 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 51 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,890 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DTW → FLL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 83.5% of the time, against 66.6% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 16.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 81.8% on time from 406 flights
- 6 AM: 85.9% on time from 462 flights
- 7 AM: 85.7% on time from 1,149 flights
- 8 AM: 69.0% on time from 215 flights
- 9 AM: 72.9% on time from 134 flights
- 10 AM: 82.1% on time from 1,129 flights
- 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 79.1% on time from 780 flights
- 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 72.2% on time from 282 flights
- 3 PM: 74.2% on time from 502 flights
- 4 PM: 59.2% on time from 504 flights
- 5 PM: 78.9% on time from 226 flights
- 6 PM: 67.8% on time from 780 flights
- 7 PM: 68.8% on time from 339 flights
- 8 PM: 64.2% on time from 652 flights
- 9 PM: 67.3% on time from 173 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why DTW → FLL runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow 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 → FLL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 | 5,127 | 76.7% | 1.01% | -4 min | 8.4% |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,602 | 74.9% | 1.38% | -7 min | 8.3% |
Delta Air Lines flew 66.3% of the 7,729 flights listed.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
DL655 (7:00 AM) arrived on time 84.2% of the time, 17.5 points more often than DL2296 (6:30 PM) at 66.7%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 12.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 64.8%
- Feb: 75.9%
- Mar: 67.1%
- Apr: 78.6%
- May: 78.0%
- Jun: 78.3%
- Jul: 70.8%
- Aug: 72.2%
- Sep: 88.5%
- Oct: 88.8%
- Nov: 84.6%
- Dec: 72.0%
January is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 24.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 66.9% from 153 flights
- August 2023: 66.0% from 147 flights
- September 2023: 90.7% from 165 flights
- October 2023: 91.1% from 202 flights
- November 2023: 86.1% from 201 flights
- December 2023: 82.6% from 236 flights
- January 2024: 64.2% from 219 flights
- February 2024: 83.9% from 213 flights
- March 2024: 71.9% from 281 flights
- April 2024: 84.9% from 260 flights
- May 2024: 75.0% from 245 flights
- June 2024: 76.3% from 190 flights
- July 2024: 71.9% from 184 flights
- August 2024: 68.2% from 178 flights
- September 2024: 85.0% from 141 flights
- October 2024: 85.7% from 168 flights
- November 2024: 86.1% from 166 flights
- December 2024: 75.8% from 223 flights
- January 2025: 70.8% from 211 flights
- February 2025: 70.6% from 218 flights
- March 2025: 77.4% from 287 flights
- April 2025: 78.2% from 253 flights
- May 2025: 83.3% from 234 flights
- June 2025: 78.3% from 214 flights
- July 2025: 75.0% from 211 flights
- August 2025: 79.9% from 206 flights
- September 2025: 89.2% from 167 flights
- October 2025: 88.9% from 199 flights
- November 2025: 82.2% from 229 flights
- December 2025: 59.7% from 278 flights
- January 2026: 60.2% from 252 flights
- February 2026: 73.9% from 262 flights
- March 2026: 53.3% from 328 flights
- April 2026: 72.9% from 272 flights
- May 2026: 75.1% from 182 flights
- June 2026: 81.2% from 120 flights
- July 2026: 68.1% from 195 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 71.8% against 77.5% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,890 DTW → FLL 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