Route profile
IAH→DTW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Houston to Detroit, 1,075 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 48% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,048 flights. How this is calculated
IAH → DTW arrives on time 80.2% of the time; the return trip, DTW → IAH, arrives on time 78.9% of the time.
IAH → DTW spends 26.5 minutes on the ground on a 1,075-mile trip: 16.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IAH and 9.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at DTW.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every day of the week performs about the same on this route, steadier than 95% of 4,467 comparable routes.
82.3% on time on the best day (Wednesday) against 78.3% on the worst (Friday).
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 4,467 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where IAH to DTW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IAH to DTW is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 4 PM: 79.0% arrive on time, 11.2 points ahead of the 67.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 8.3 points.
IAH to DTW holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 79.3% on time to their 73.0%, a 6.3 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 4.5 points.
October is kinder to IAH to DTW than to routes of similar length: 88.0% on time against 82.5%, 5.5 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 5 points.
United Airlines’ flights on IAH to DTW arrive on time 75.1% of the time, 5.6 points below the 80.7% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 4.8 points.
Spirit Airlines does better on IAH to DTW than on its routes of similar length: 79.1% on time here, 73.7% there, 5.4 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 3.9 points.
IAH to DTW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 79.0% | routes of similar length | 67.8% | +11.2 pts | 371 here, 157,604 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 79.3% | routes of similar length | 73.0% | +6.3 pts | 1,026 here, 426,676 there |
| Month: October | 88.0% | routes of similar length | 82.5% | +5.5 pts | 625 here, 236,142 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 75.1% | routes of similar length | 80.7% | −5.6 pts | 1,262 here, 392,350 there |
| Airline: Spirit Airlines | 79.1% | routes of similar length | 73.7% | +5.4 pts | 1,461 here, 197,266 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 1,075 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 IAH → DTW flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
IAH → DTW cancelled 85 of 7,048 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 83. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 52.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 157 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 85 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.
45 cancellations, 52.9% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
34 cancellations, 40.0% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
6 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. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
85 coded cancellations were recorded on IAH → DTW; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
42 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 7,048 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DTW after arriving from IAH.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 35% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.2% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.8% | 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 1.21% of the time and diverts 0.20% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,949 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 42 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,048 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IAH → DTW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.4% of the time, against 72.4% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 16.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 89.7% on time from 1,327 flights
- 6 AM: 87.1% on time from 221 flights
- 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 82.8% on time from 214 flights
- 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 81.8% on time from 150 flights
- 11 AM: 80.3% on time from 532 flights
- 12 PM: 83.0% on time from 770 flights
- 1 PM: 82.1% on time from 196 flights
- 2 PM: 76.6% on time from 194 flights
- 3 PM: 77.0% on time from 860 flights
- 4 PM: 79.0% on time from 375 flights
- 5 PM: 76.2% on time from 279 flights
- 6 PM: 74.9% on time from 548 flights
- 7 PM: 70.6% on time from 419 flights
- 8 PM: 71.6% on time from 772 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why IAH → DTW 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 IAH → DTW. 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 | 4,044 | 82.5% | 0.96% | -8 min | 6.5% |
| Spirit Airlines | 1,486 | 79.1% | 1.55% | -4 min | 7.6% |
| United Airlines | 1,284 | 75.1% | 1.64% | -3 min | 9.4% |
Delta Air Lines flew 59.3% of the 6,814 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 7.4 percentage points more often than United 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL1389 Delta Air Lines | 5:30 AM | 1,065 | 89.7% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 4.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 78.8%
- Feb: 83.6%
- Mar: 79.5%
- Apr: 83.0%
- May: 78.6%
- Jun: 75.9%
- Jul: 69.7%
- Aug: 78.4%
- Sep: 84.7%
- Oct: 88.0%
- Nov: 84.7%
- Dec: 80.1%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 18.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 71.0% from 181 flights
- August 2023: 81.7% from 223 flights
- September 2023: 79.7% from 204 flights
- October 2023: 89.2% from 235 flights
- November 2023: 89.3% from 178 flights
- December 2023: 87.4% from 159 flights
- January 2024: 74.8% from 161 flights
- February 2024: 87.6% from 153 flights
- March 2024: 84.9% from 172 flights
- April 2024: 85.0% from 188 flights
- May 2024: 74.6% from 210 flights
- June 2024: 79.6% from 227 flights
- July 2024: 60.1% from 209 flights
- August 2024: 75.7% from 240 flights
- September 2024: 85.3% from 224 flights
- October 2024: 86.9% from 223 flights
- November 2024: 83.3% from 216 flights
- December 2024: 75.2% from 225 flights
- January 2025: 82.2% from 206 flights
- February 2025: 82.3% from 175 flights
- March 2025: 85.3% from 197 flights
- April 2025: 87.4% from 174 flights
- May 2025: 85.1% from 176 flights
- June 2025: 73.3% from 180 flights
- July 2025: 75.6% from 198 flights
- August 2025: 77.8% from 206 flights
- September 2025: 89.4% from 180 flights
- October 2025: 87.7% from 171 flights
- November 2025: 81.9% from 190 flights
- December 2025: 79.5% from 169 flights
- January 2026: 78.3% from 132 flights
- February 2026: 81.1% from 150 flights
- March 2026: 68.8% from 204 flights
- April 2026: 76.8% from 182 flights
- May 2026: 76.8% from 182 flights
- June 2026: 73.8% from 173 flights
- July 2026: 72.4% from 175 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.6% against 81.4% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.8 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,048 IAH → DTW 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