Route profile
DTW→PHL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Detroit to Philadelphia, 453 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 34% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 9,339 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
DTW → PHL arrives on time 80.5% of the time; the return trip, PHL → DTW, arrives on time 81.0% of the time.
DTW → PHL spends 26.1 minutes on the ground on a 453-mile trip: 19.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DTW and 7.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at PHL.
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 97% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Spirit Airlines arrived on time 82.9% of the time, against 60.4% for Frontier 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 DTW to PHL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DTW to PHL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 PM: 79.9% arrive on time, 10.9 points ahead of the 69.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 10.5 points.
DTW to PHL struggles most at 6 AM: 86.5% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 5.5 points behind the 92.0% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 4.3 points.
May is kinder to DTW to PHL than to routes of similar length: 83.2% on time against 76.0%, 7.2 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 8 points.
In January, DTW to PHL runs 6.8 points below routes of similar length, 73.0% on time to 79.8%. Against all other routes the gap is 6.1 points.
Spirit Airlines does better on DTW to PHL than on its routes of similar length: 82.9% on time here, 77.1% there, 5.8 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 7.7 points.
DTW to PHL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 79.9% | routes of similar length | 69.0% | +10.9 pts | 1,081 here, 60,871 there |
| Hour: 6 AM departures | 86.5% | routes of similar length | 92.0% | −5.5 pts | 489 here, 105,663 there |
| Month: May | 83.2% | routes of similar length | 76.0% | +7.2 pts | 758 here, 132,858 there |
| Month: January | 73.0% | routes of similar length | 79.8% | −6.8 pts | 638 here, 113,351 there |
| Airline: Spirit Airlines | 82.9% | routes of similar length | 77.1% | +5.8 pts | 735 here, 53,025 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 453 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 → PHL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DTW → PHL cancelled 218 of 9,339 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 43. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 64.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 66 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 218 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.
141 cancellations, 64.7% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
56 cancellations, 25.7% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
21 cancellations, 9.6% 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.
218 coded cancellations were recorded on DTW → PHL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
46 min late
against a median of 10 min early
Percentiles over 9,339 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at PHL after arriving from DTW.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 31% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 8.1% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.2% | 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 2.33% of the time and diverts 0.11% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 9,111 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 46 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 9,339 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DTW → PHL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.8% of the time, against 68.8% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 20.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 91.1% on time from 405 flights
- 6 AM: 86.5% on time from 525 flights
- 7 AM: 89.3% on time from 1,226 flights
- 8 AM: 87.4% on time from 237 flights
- 9 AM: 92.0% on time from 202 flights
- 10 AM: 86.3% on time from 1,240 flights
- 11 AM: 81.7% on time from 399 flights
- 12 PM: 80.6% on time from 197 flights
- 1 PM: 79.9% on time from 457 flights
- 2 PM: 80.0% on time from 766 flights
- 3 PM: 70.1% on time from 572 flights
- 4 PM: 68.4% on time from 733 flights
- 5 PM: 67.9% on time from 554 flights
- 6 PM: 68.4% on time from 451 flights
- 7 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 79.9% on time from 1,103 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why DTW → PHL 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 → PHL. 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 | 4,464 | 82.5% | 1.32% | -11 min | 7.5% |
| PSA Airlines | 1,807 | 79.9% | 5.15% | -11 min | 9.1% |
| American Airlines | 1,320 | 77.6% | 2.58% | -5 min | 9.5% |
| Spirit Airlines | 743 | 82.9% | 1.08% | -11 min | 5.6% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 337 | 75.2% | 1.19% | -5 min | 13.3% |
| Republic Airways | 269 | 81.1% | 3.72% | -8 min | 6.2% |
| Frontier Airlines | 235 | 60.4% | 4.26% | 4 min | 16.0% |
Delta Air Lines flew 48.7% of the 9,175 flights listed. PSA Airlines cancelled 5.15% of its flights here against 1.08% for Spirit Airlines.
Spirit Airlines arrived on time 22.5 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.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL2402 Delta Air Lines | 9:40 PM | 1,015 | 81.2% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 5.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 73.0%
- Feb: 81.8%
- Mar: 85.1%
- Apr: 82.2%
- May: 83.2%
- Jun: 79.3%
- Jul: 72.9%
- Aug: 77.5%
- Sep: 84.4%
- Oct: 88.4%
- Nov: 85.1%
- Dec: 76.1%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 15.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 84.5% from 262 flights
- August 2023: 86.5% from 271 flights
- September 2023: 82.3% from 269 flights
- October 2023: 93.8% from 260 flights
- November 2023: 90.3% from 186 flights
- December 2023: 87.0% from 231 flights
- January 2024: 69.4% from 228 flights
- February 2024: 92.4% from 197 flights
- March 2024: 87.8% from 238 flights
- April 2024: 84.6% from 242 flights
- May 2024: 85.9% from 270 flights
- June 2024: 78.3% from 329 flights
- July 2024: 74.6% from 342 flights
- August 2024: 70.7% from 341 flights
- September 2024: 83.9% from 300 flights
- October 2024: 85.7% from 315 flights
- November 2024: 85.7% from 265 flights
- December 2024: 76.3% from 242 flights
- January 2025: 77.0% from 221 flights
- February 2025: 76.9% from 196 flights
- March 2025: 83.2% from 188 flights
- April 2025: 77.3% from 208 flights
- May 2025: 78.7% from 252 flights
- June 2025: 81.0% from 252 flights
- July 2025: 64.9% from 281 flights
- August 2025: 76.6% from 268 flights
- September 2025: 87.2% from 266 flights
- October 2025: 86.5% from 282 flights
- November 2025: 80.4% from 239 flights
- December 2025: 64.8% from 233 flights
- January 2026: 72.8% from 218 flights
- February 2026: 76.0% from 213 flights
- March 2026: 83.7% from 220 flights
- April 2026: 84.1% from 233 flights
- May 2026: 85.0% from 248 flights
- June 2026: 79.0% from 251 flights
- July 2026: 68.1% from 282 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.8% against 78.3% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 9,339 DTW → PHL 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