Route profile
LAX→DTW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Los Angeles to Detroit, 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 83% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 8,283 flights. How this is calculated
LAX → DTW arrives on time 83.8% of the time; the return trip, DTW → LAX, arrives on time 81.0% of the time, a 2.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
LAX → DTW spends 26.2 minutes on the ground on a 1,979-mile trip: 16.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at LAX and 10.2 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 LAX to DTW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
LAX to DTW is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 4 PM: 84.3% arrive on time, 11.2 points ahead of the 73.1% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 13.6 points.
LAX to DTW holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 84.7% on time to their 76.9%, a 7.8 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 8.5 points.
July is kinder to LAX to DTW than to routes of similar length: 79.9% on time against 70.1%, 9.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 10.2 points.
Spirit Airlines does better on LAX to DTW than on its routes of similar length: 81.5% on time here, 76.9% there, 4.6 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 6.3 points.
LAX to DTW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 84.3% | routes of similar length | 73.1% | +11.2 pts | 127 here, 57,148 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 84.7% | routes of similar length | 76.9% | +7.8 pts | 1,213 here, 159,101 there |
| Month: July | 79.9% | routes of similar length | 70.1% | +9.8 pts | 966 here, 129,540 there |
| Airline: Spirit Airlines | 81.5% | routes of similar length | 76.9% | +4.6 pts | 2,090 here, 49,124 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 LAX → DTW flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
LAX → DTW cancelled 69 of 8,283 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 120. The reason filed most often was the airline, 68.1% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 176 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 69 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.
47 cancellations, 68.1% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
22 cancellations, 31.9% 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.
69 coded cancellations were recorded on LAX → DTW; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
29 min late
against a median of 8 min early
Percentiles over 8,283 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DTW after arriving from LAX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 32% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 16% | High risk |
| 60 min | 9.6% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.1% | 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 0.83% 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 8,194 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 29 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 8,283 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
LAX → DTW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.4% of the time, against 78.5% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 11.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 92.9% on time from 754 flights
- 6 AM: 89.3% on time from 329 flights
- 7 AM: 91.1% on time from 549 flights
- 8 AM: 84.1% on time from 304 flights
- 9 AM: 88.7% on time from 901 flights
- 10 AM: 89.1% on time from 202 flights
- 11 AM: 83.5% on time from 717 flights
- 12 PM: 83.6% on time from 691 flights
- 1 PM: 77.7% on time from 219 flights
- 2 PM: 83.1% on time from 376 flights
- 3 PM: 78.9% on time from 664 flights
- 4 PM: 84.3% on time from 128 flights
- 5 PM: 82.4% on time from 154 flights
- 6 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 77.4% on time from 660 flights
- 10 PM: 79.9% on time from 1,153 flights
- 11 PM: 79.5% on time from 367 flights
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why LAX → 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 LAX → 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 | 6,158 | 84.6% | 0.65% | -8 min | 4.2% |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,122 | 81.5% | 1.37% | -9 min | 7.8% |
Delta Air Lines flew 74.4% of the 8,280 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 3.1 percentage points more often than Spirit Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
DL494 (8:00 AM) arrived on time 87.9% of the time, 7.3 points more often than DL407 (10:30 PM) at 80.6%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 6.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.3%
- Feb: 84.2%
- Mar: 80.4%
- Apr: 86.1%
- May: 80.6%
- Jun: 79.3%
- Jul: 79.9%
- Aug: 82.1%
- Sep: 91.8%
- Oct: 90.6%
- Nov: 89.2%
- Dec: 80.9%
June is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 12.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 80.4% from 259 flights
- August 2023: 80.8% from 264 flights
- September 2023: 92.0% from 237 flights
- October 2023: 91.1% from 258 flights
- November 2023: 86.2% from 247 flights
- December 2023: 83.3% from 209 flights
- January 2024: 80.4% from 193 flights
- February 2024: 90.2% from 163 flights
- March 2024: 86.6% from 194 flights
- April 2024: 89.8% from 217 flights
- May 2024: 78.6% from 259 flights
- June 2024: 79.4% from 274 flights
- July 2024: 74.1% from 291 flights
- August 2024: 81.0% from 282 flights
- September 2024: 94.3% from 246 flights
- October 2024: 89.3% from 224 flights
- November 2024: 93.7% from 207 flights
- December 2024: 85.1% from 222 flights
- January 2025: 85.4% from 219 flights
- February 2025: 85.6% from 177 flights
- March 2025: 78.9% from 219 flights
- April 2025: 85.6% from 233 flights
- May 2025: 81.0% from 231 flights
- June 2025: 77.9% from 246 flights
- July 2025: 83.8% from 261 flights
- August 2025: 84.7% from 243 flights
- September 2025: 89.0% from 228 flights
- October 2025: 91.5% from 235 flights
- November 2025: 88.0% from 185 flights
- December 2025: 74.2% from 215 flights
- January 2026: 77.5% from 202 flights
- February 2026: 77.3% from 179 flights
- March 2026: 76.2% from 214 flights
- April 2026: 82.9% from 208 flights
- May 2026: 83.1% from 187 flights
- June 2026: 81.2% from 171 flights
- July 2026: 82.4% from 184 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.5% against 85.0% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.5 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 8,283 LAX → 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