Route profile
LAS→DTW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Las Vegas to Detroit, 1,749 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 79% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 9,461 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
LAS → DTW arrives on time 82.3% of the time; the return trip, DTW → LAS, arrives on time 78.7% of the time, a 3.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
LAS → DTW spends 27.5 minutes on the ground on a 1,749-mile trip: 17.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at LAS and 9.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at DTW.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where LAS to DTW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
LAS to DTW is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 AM: 88.9% arrive on time, 6.8 points ahead of the 82.1% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 4.6 points.
LAS to DTW holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 86.8% on time to their 78.6%, a 8.2 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7.7 points.
November is kinder to LAS to DTW than to routes of similar length: 89.8% on time against 83.2%, 6.6 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 6.4 points.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on LAS to DTW arrive on time 70.0% of the time, 5.1 points below the 75.1% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 7.4 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on LAS to DTW than on its routes of similar length: 85.2% on time here, 81.8% there, 3.4 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 3.7 points.
LAS to DTW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 AM departures | 88.9% | routes of similar length | 82.1% | +6.8 pts | 795 here, 86,013 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 86.8% | routes of similar length | 78.6% | +8.2 pts | 1,307 here, 185,306 there |
| Month: November | 89.8% | routes of similar length | 83.2% | +6.6 pts | 788 here, 105,807 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 70.0% | routes of similar length | 75.1% | −5.1 pts | 633 here, 259,898 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 85.2% | routes of similar length | 81.8% | +3.4 pts | 6,057 here, 340,575 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 1,749 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 LAS → DTW flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
LAS → DTW cancelled 55 of 9,461 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 172. The reason filed most often was the airline, 65.5% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 263 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.
36 cancellations, 65.5% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
17 cancellations, 30.9% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
2 cancellations, 3.6% 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.
55 coded cancellations were recorded on LAS → DTW; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
32 min late
against a median of 8 min early
Percentiles over 9,461 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DTW after arriving from LAS.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 34% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 10% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.5% | 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 0.58% 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 9,383 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 32 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 9,461 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
LAS → DTW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 91.2% of the time, against 75.7% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 15.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM: 81.1% on time from 127 flights
- 1 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 92.5% on time from 432 flights
- 6 AM: 91.9% on time from 693 flights
- 7 AM: 89.7% on time from 253 flights
- 8 AM: 87.0% on time from 149 flights
- 9 AM: 88.9% on time from 801 flights
- 10 AM: 85.3% on time from 611 flights
- 11 AM: 82.7% on time from 957 flights
- 12 PM: 76.4% on time from 948 flights
- 1 PM: 74.2% on time from 597 flights
- 2 PM: 76.9% on time from 196 flights
- 3 PM: 78.9% on time from 996 flights
- 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 74.7% on time from 246 flights
- 6 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 72.8% on time from 176 flights
- 10 PM: 81.4% on time from 1,008 flights
- 11 PM: 81.8% on time from 1,121 flights
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why LAS → 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 LAS → DTW. 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 | 6,105 | 85.2% | 0.52% | -9 min | 4.8% |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,376 | 79.9% | 0.76% | -8 min | 7.4% |
| Southwest Airlines | 634 | 70.0% | 0.16% | 3 min | 5.4% |
| Frontier Airlines | 345 | 70.9% | 1.16% | -2 min | 8.5% |
Delta Air Lines flew 64.5% of the 9,460 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 1.16% of its flights here against 0.16% for Southwest Airlines.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 15.2 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 10.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 83.3%
- Feb: 87.0%
- Mar: 81.5%
- Apr: 85.0%
- May: 81.7%
- Jun: 77.3%
- Jul: 72.2%
- Aug: 80.1%
- Sep: 82.7%
- Oct: 85.2%
- Nov: 89.8%
- Dec: 85.4%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 17.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 70.2% from 268 flights
- August 2023: 80.7% from 264 flights
- September 2023: 85.5% from 291 flights
- October 2023: 80.9% from 331 flights
- November 2023: 91.9% from 270 flights
- December 2023: 87.6% from 194 flights
- January 2024: 79.5% from 191 flights
- February 2024: 87.7% from 187 flights
- March 2024: 77.9% from 263 flights
- April 2024: 87.0% from 270 flights
- May 2024: 82.4% from 293 flights
- June 2024: 78.3% from 307 flights
- July 2024: 73.4% from 310 flights
- August 2024: 81.0% from 271 flights
- September 2024: 80.2% from 262 flights
- October 2024: 85.4% from 316 flights
- November 2024: 95.0% from 280 flights
- December 2024: 91.8% from 255 flights
- January 2025: 87.2% from 242 flights
- February 2025: 85.0% from 229 flights
- March 2025: 85.6% from 273 flights
- April 2025: 83.7% from 296 flights
- May 2025: 81.9% from 288 flights
- June 2025: 77.6% from 273 flights
- July 2025: 76.8% from 248 flights
- August 2025: 78.4% from 227 flights
- September 2025: 82.0% from 239 flights
- October 2025: 89.5% from 308 flights
- November 2025: 81.5% from 239 flights
- December 2025: 76.2% from 224 flights
- January 2026: 82.5% from 251 flights
- February 2026: 88.6% from 221 flights
- March 2026: 80.7% from 247 flights
- April 2026: 84.6% from 248 flights
- May 2026: 80.5% from 216 flights
- June 2026: 75.0% from 170 flights
- July 2026: 67.3% from 199 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 81.1% against 84.3% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 9,461 LAS → 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