Route profile
DTW→LAX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Detroit to Los Angeles, 1,979 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 77% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 8,282 flights. How this is calculated
DTW → LAX arrives on time 81.0% of the time; the return trip, LAX → DTW, arrives on time 83.8% of the time, a 2.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DTW → LAX spends 27.3 minutes on the ground on a 1,979-mile trip: 16.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DTW and 10.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at LAX.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where DTW to LAX differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DTW to LAX struggles most at 10 PM: 59.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 20.8 points behind the 80.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.1 points.
DTW to LAX is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 1 PM: 86.9% arrive on time, 12.1 points ahead of the 74.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9.8 points.
September is kinder to DTW to LAX than to routes of similar length: 90.4% on time against 82.8%, 7.6 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 8.1 points.
In February, DTW to LAX runs 5.7 points below routes of similar length, 76.3% on time to 82.0%. Against all other routes the gap is 5.2 points.
Spirit Airlines does better on DTW to LAX than on its routes of similar length: 83.2% on time here, 76.9% there, 6.3 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 8 points.
DTW to LAX against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 10 PM departures | 59.6% | routes of similar length | 80.4% | −20.8 pts | 218 here, 49,842 there |
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 86.9% | routes of similar length | 74.8% | +12.1 pts | 183 here, 48,937 there |
| Month: September | 90.4% | routes of similar length | 82.8% | +7.6 pts | 710 here, 85,783 there |
| Month: February | 76.3% | routes of similar length | 82.0% | −5.7 pts | 511 here, 71,143 there |
| Airline: Spirit Airlines | 83.2% | routes of similar length | 76.9% | +6.3 pts | 2,102 here, 49,112 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 1,979 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 → LAX flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DTW → LAX cancelled 55 of 8,282 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 151. The reason filed most often was the airline, 72.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 207 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 55 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.
40 cancellations, 72.7% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
15 cancellations, 27.3% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
0 cancellations, 0.0% 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.
55 coded cancellations were recorded on DTW → LAX; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
35 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 8,282 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at LAX after arriving from DTW.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 34% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.7% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.2% | 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 0.66% 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 8,216 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 35 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 8,282 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DTW → LAX flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 90.2% of the time, against 65.8% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 24.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 91.0% on time from 437 flights
- 7 AM: 92.3% on time from 224 flights
- 8 AM: 85.3% on time from 1,161 flights
- 9 AM: 91.6% on time from 313 flights
- 10 AM to 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 83.6% on time from 1,160 flights
- 1 PM: 86.9% on time from 183 flights
- 2 PM: 84.5% on time from 232 flights
- 3 PM: 80.5% on time from 445 flights
- 4 PM: 79.2% on time from 835 flights
- 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 77.3% on time from 1,100 flights
- 7 PM: 76.3% on time from 263 flights
- 8 PM: 74.6% on time from 1,094 flights
- 9 PM: 70.1% on time from 316 flights
- 10 PM: 59.6% on time from 220 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why DTW → LAX runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
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 DTW → LAX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
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 | 6,157 | 80.3% | 0.62% | -7 min | 6.0% |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,122 | 83.2% | 0.80% | -13 min | 5.6% |
Delta Air Lines flew 74.4% of the 8,279 flights listed.
Spirit Airlines arrived on time 2.9 percentage points more often than Delta Air Lines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
DL883 (6:00 PM) arrived on time 79.0% of the time, 7.1 points more often than DL694 (8:30 PM) at 71.9%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 8.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 75.6%
- Feb: 76.3%
- Mar: 81.3%
- Apr: 78.2%
- May: 83.0%
- Jun: 77.3%
- Jul: 75.4%
- Aug: 83.2%
- Sep: 90.4%
- Oct: 89.0%
- Nov: 83.1%
- Dec: 79.0%
July is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 15.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 66.3% from 260 flights
- August 2023: 77.9% from 266 flights
- September 2023: 91.9% from 235 flights
- October 2023: 90.7% from 258 flights
- November 2023: 84.6% from 246 flights
- December 2023: 95.2% from 210 flights
- January 2024: 82.1% from 194 flights
- February 2024: 83.3% from 163 flights
- March 2024: 85.1% from 194 flights
- April 2024: 85.8% from 218 flights
- May 2024: 78.7% from 259 flights
- June 2024: 77.7% from 273 flights
- July 2024: 79.5% from 292 flights
- August 2024: 83.5% from 281 flights
- September 2024: 91.1% from 246 flights
- October 2024: 92.0% from 224 flights
- November 2024: 83.6% from 207 flights
- December 2024: 78.8% from 222 flights
- January 2025: 77.2% from 219 flights
- February 2025: 69.0% from 176 flights
- March 2025: 83.0% from 218 flights
- April 2025: 78.4% from 233 flights
- May 2025: 88.3% from 231 flights
- June 2025: 80.7% from 246 flights
- July 2025: 80.8% from 262 flights
- August 2025: 88.5% from 244 flights
- September 2025: 88.2% from 229 flights
- October 2025: 84.2% from 234 flights
- November 2025: 80.8% from 185 flights
- December 2025: 62.6% from 213 flights
- January 2026: 67.7% from 201 flights
- February 2026: 77.0% from 179 flights
- March 2026: 76.1% from 214 flights
- April 2026: 70.0% from 209 flights
- May 2026: 82.4% from 186 flights
- June 2026: 71.9% from 171 flights
- July 2026: 74.3% from 184 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.3% against 82.5% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 8,282 DTW → LAX 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