Route profile
DTW→STL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Detroit to St. Louis, 440 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 5,772 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
DTW → STL arrives on time 82.0% of the time; the return trip, STL → DTW, arrives on time 84.4% of the time, a 2.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DTW → STL spends 21.2 minutes on the ground on a 440-mile trip: 15.3 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DTW and 5.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at STL.
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 90% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 83.5% of the time, against 65.5% for SkyWest 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 STL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DTW to STL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 PM: 78.2% arrive on time, 10.2 points ahead of the 68.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 10.4 points.
DTW to STL holds up on Thursdays better than routes of similar length do: 81.5% on time to their 77.0%, a 4.5 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 4.7 points.
July is kinder to DTW to STL than to routes of similar length: 77.5% on time against 69.8%, 7.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7.8 points.
In January, DTW to STL runs 6.3 points below routes of similar length, 73.3% on time to 79.6%. Against all other routes the gap is 5.8 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on DTW to STL than on its routes of similar length: 80.7% on time here, 78.2% there, 2.5 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 3.3 points.
DTW to STL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 78.2% | routes of similar length | 68.0% | +10.2 pts | 371 here, 84,521 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 81.5% | routes of similar length | 77.0% | +4.5 pts | 854 here, 223,395 there |
| Month: July | 77.5% | routes of similar length | 69.8% | +7.7 pts | 697 here, 164,761 there |
| Month: January | 73.3% | routes of similar length | 79.6% | −6.3 pts | 363 here, 106,244 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 80.7% | routes of similar length | 78.2% | +2.5 pts | 1,747 here, 457,544 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 440 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.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
35 min late
against a median of 8 min early
Percentiles over 5,772 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at STL after arriving from DTW.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 31% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.7% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.3% | 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 0.71% of the time and diverts 0.24% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,717 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 5,772 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DTW → STL flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 89.4% of the time, against 74.0% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 15.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 94.5% on time from 258 flights
- 8 AM: 86.8% on time from 1,231 flights
- 9 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 89.5% on time from 209 flights
- 12 PM: 85.5% on time from 772 flights
- 1 PM to 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 79.2% on time from 255 flights
- 4 PM: 80.5% on time from 892 flights
- 5 PM to 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 78.2% on time from 375 flights
- 8 PM: 72.8% on time from 1,070 flights
- 9 PM: 77.8% on time from 187 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why DTW → STL 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 → STL. 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 | 3,623 | 83.5% | 0.77% | -11 min | 5.9% |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,756 | 80.7% | 0.46% | -5 min | 4.6% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 235 | 65.5% | 1.70% | 1 min | 11.8% |
Delta Air Lines flew 64.5% of the 5,614 flights listed. SkyWest Airlines cancelled 1.70% of its flights here against 0.46% for Southwest Airlines.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 18.0 percentage points more often than SkyWest Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
DL2868 (8:55 AM) arrived on time 88.6% of the time, 11.3 points more often than DL1541 (8:00 PM) at 77.3%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 73.3%
- Feb: 81.4%
- Mar: 84.1%
- Apr: 84.9%
- May: 82.2%
- Jun: 77.2%
- Jul: 77.5%
- Aug: 82.5%
- Sep: 89.8%
- Oct: 87.2%
- Nov: 86.9%
- Dec: 77.2%
January 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: 78.2% from 166 flights
- August 2023: 79.3% from 174 flights
- September 2023: 88.5% from 165 flights
- October 2023: 90.8% from 175 flights
- November 2023: 92.6% from 163 flights
- December 2023: 90.5% from 158 flights
- January 2024: 76.2% from 127 flights
- February 2024: too few flights to score (108)
- March 2024: 89.4% from 160 flights
- April 2024: 89.2% from 159 flights
- May 2024: 81.8% from 159 flights
- June 2024: 78.9% from 171 flights
- July 2024: 81.5% from 176 flights
- August 2024: 83.1% from 166 flights
- September 2024: 89.2% from 158 flights
- October 2024: 91.8% from 171 flights
- November 2024: 88.2% from 154 flights
- December 2024: 80.0% from 155 flights
- January 2025: 76.9% from 126 flights
- February 2025: too few flights to score (114)
- March 2025: 92.7% from 125 flights
- April 2025: 84.3% from 135 flights
- May 2025: 86.6% from 149 flights
- June 2025: 77.6% from 176 flights
- July 2025: 75.4% from 188 flights
- August 2025: 85.1% from 175 flights
- September 2025: 91.9% from 148 flights
- October 2025: 78.9% from 171 flights
- November 2025: 79.3% from 153 flights
- December 2025: 60.5% from 156 flights
- January 2026: 66.7% from 122 flights
- February 2026: too few flights to score (112)
- March 2026: 72.0% from 161 flights
- April 2026: 81.2% from 167 flights
- May 2026: 78.9% from 179 flights
- June 2026: 75.1% from 173 flights
- July 2026: 75.0% from 177 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.9% against 83.5% in the 12 months before — declining by 6.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,772 DTW → STL 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