ORD → DTW Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · ORDNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:51 UTC

Chicago airport profile →

Destination · DTWNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:53 UTC

Detroit airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

54/ 100Fair

Better than 22% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 17,424 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

76.7%

13,096 of 17,078

Cancellation rate

1.93%

337 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-6 min

Average 11.4 min

Severe delays

9.8%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

80 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

17,424

6 carriers

ORD → DTW arrives on time 76.7% of the time; the return trip, DTW → ORD, arrives on time 77.7% of the time.

ORD → DTW spends 34.3 minutes on the ground on a 235-mile trip: 24.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at ORD and 9.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at DTW.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

Why ORD → DTW flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

ORD → DTW cancelled 337 of 17,424 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 52. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 62.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 83 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Weather62.0%

Air traffic20.5%

Airline17.5%

Security0.0%

Of 337 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

Extreme weather1 in 83

Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.

209 cancellations, 62.0% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 253

Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.

69 cancellations, 20.5% of the total.

The airline1 in 295

Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.

59 cancellations, 17.5% of the total.

Security—

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.

337 coded cancellations were recorded on ORD → DTW; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

58 min late

against a median of 6 min early

Arrived an hour or more late9.8%

Typical delay when late80 min

Cancelled1.93%

Landed somewhere else0.05%

ORD → DTW has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 6 min early, but the worst tenth are 64 minutes worse than that. If the trip has something unmissable at the end of it, the median is the wrong number to plan against.

Percentiles over 17,424 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at DTW after arriving from ORD.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, ORD → DTW arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	38%	Likely to miss
45 min	23%	High risk
60 min	16%	High risk
90 min	9.7%	Some risk
120 min	6.3%	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 1.93% of the time and diverts 0.05% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 17,078 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 58 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 17,424 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

ORD → DTW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 86.8% of the time, against 67.9% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 18.9 percentage points.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (ORD).

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 7.0 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 2.3 points.

On-time arrival rate for ORD to DTW by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
7 AM–8 AM
8 AM–9 AM
9 AM–10 AM
10 AM–11 AM
11 AM–12 PM
12 PM–1 PM
1 PM–2 PM
2 PM–3 PM
3 PM–4 PM
4 PM–5 PM
5 PM–6 PM
6 PM–7 PM
7 PM–8 PM
8 PM–9 PM
9 PM–10 PM

On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time

60–64
65–69
70–74
75–79
80–84
85–89
90–94

Fewer than 120 flights, not scored

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · On time is arrival within 15 minutes of schedule. Cells round to whole percentages; the table shows one decimal.

No slot is named best or worst: too few reach 500 flights. Departures before 7 AM and after 10 PM (607 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday for ORD to DTW. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
7 AM–8 AM	82.9% on time301 flights	88.4% on time306 flights	89.6% on time302 flights	90.8% on time296 flights	87.6% on time296 flights	89.7% on time256 flights	87.7% on time280 flights
8 AM–9 AM	84.6% on time144 flights	112 flights, too few to score	86.5% on time143 flights	78.9% on time138 flights	79.6% on time141 flights	75 flights, too few to score	83.1% on time139 flights
9 AM–10 AM	91 flights, too few to score	105 flights, too few to score	95 flights, too few to score	94 flights, too few to score	100 flights, too few to score	71 flights, too few to score	93 flights, too few to score
10 AM–11 AM	80.9% on time309 flights	87.7% on time296 flights	85.5% on time305 flights	85.4% on time303 flights	81.4% on time306 flights	83.5% on time265 flights	78.6% on time287 flights
11 AM–12 PM	52 flights, too few to score	61 flights, too few to score	57 flights, too few to score	55 flights, too few to score	53 flights, too few to score	60 flights, too few to score	53 flights, too few to score
12 PM–1 PM	61 flights, too few to score	63 flights, too few to score	54 flights, too few to score	59 flights, too few to score	57 flights, too few to score	30 flights, too few to score	49 flights, too few to score
1 PM–2 PM	79.4% on time155 flights	79.9% on time145 flights	77.5% on time152 flights	78.8% on time158 flights	74.7% on time155 flights	80.8% on time120 flights	73.5% on time152 flights
2 PM–3 PM	72.6% on time280 flights	73.5% on time273 flights	73.7% on time276 flights	80.7% on time278 flights	69.2% on time280 flights	79.8% on time264 flights	71.8% on time280 flights
3 PM–4 PM	66 flights, too few to score	60 flights, too few to score	65 flights, too few to score	64 flights, too few to score	75 flights, too few to score	70 flights, too few to score	63 flights, too few to score
4 PM–5 PM	53 flights, too few to score	52 flights, too few to score	50 flights, too few to score	50 flights, too few to score	45 flights, too few to score	35 flights, too few to score	52 flights, too few to score
5 PM–6 PM	72.1% on time293 flights	73.6% on time301 flights	74.1% on time288 flights	77.3% on time287 flights	65.3% on time293 flights	75.8% on time312 flights	66.4% on time294 flights
6 PM–7 PM	68.9% on time139 flights	65.7% on time136 flights	70.0% on time126 flights	65.6% on time136 flights	65.7% on time140 flights	117 flights, too few to score	66.2% on time138 flights
7 PM–8 PM	70.7% on time294 flights	70.7% on time254 flights	70.8% on time262 flights	66.0% on time288 flights	63.7% on time288 flights	74.9% on time192 flights	63.4% on time280 flights
8 PM–9 PM	80 flights, too few to score	69 flights, too few to score	74 flights, too few to score	81 flights, too few to score	81 flights, too few to score	60 flights, too few to score	87 flights, too few to score
9 PM–10 PM	71.7% on time182 flights	69.5% on time171 flights	67.9% on time170 flights	69.2% on time175 flights	67.2% on time181 flights	77.4% on time183 flights	73.2% on time184 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM86.8%

9 AM–12 PM82.7%

12–3 PM76.0%

3–6 PM71.5%

6–9 PM67.9%

9 PM–5 AM71.6%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why ORD → DTW runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Late-arriving aircraft37.5%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

The airline37.4%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Air traffic control14.0%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Weather11.0%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security<0.1%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for ORD → DTW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on ORD → DTW, at 37.5%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 86.8% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 67.9%.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

The harder-hit end is the one the flight leaves from, where a cancellation keeps it from departing at all. Bad weather cancels 5.5 times the normal rate at ORD against 2.3 times at DTW. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: ORD 6.5% against 1.2%, DTW 2.5% against 1.1%. Flights that did leave ORD in bad weather arrived on time 55.7% of the time, against 77.1% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from ORD and DTW in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	ORD	DTW
Cancelled in bad weather	6.5%	2.5%
Cancelled in normal hours	1.2%	1.1%
Arrived on time, bad weather	55.7%	66.5%
Arrived on time, normal hours	77.1%	81.6%
Departures in bad weather	104,455	53,809

Of the carriers on this route, United Airlines (3.5% cancelled against 7.4% for the other carriers at ORD) cancelled the fewest departures from ORD in bad weather and SkyWest Airlines (10.7% cancelled against 5.8% for the other carriers at ORD) the most.

This route’s airlines in bad weather at ORD

All departures from ORD

Cancellation rates in bad weather at ORD for the airlines that fly ORD to DTW, against the other carriers at ORD in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
United Airlines	31,269	3.5%below the others	7.4%
Delta Air Lines	3,353	3.5%below the others	6.2%
American Airlines	17,789	5.4%below the others	6.7%
Republic Airways	9,471	8.1%above the others	6.5%
Envoy Air	14,228	8.6%above the others	6.9%
SkyWest Airlines	21,044	10.7%above the others	5.8%

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from ORD and DTW, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from ORD on every route.

Weather source and limits. In full: ORD (airlines), DTW, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.

Airlines on this route

Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.

Airlines on this route
Carrier	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Severe
SkyWest Airlines	6,839	72.9%	2.18%	-3 min	12.1%
Delta Air Lines	4,596	81.9%	1.33%	-10 min	8.4%
Envoy Air	2,066	77.1%	2.81%	-6 min	7.2%
United Airlines	1,882	77.4%	1.22%	-5 min	8.4%
Republic Airways	1,280	80.4%	2.42%	-7 min	7.6%
American Airlines	569	67.7%	2.46%	0 min	14.2%

SkyWest Airlines flew 39.7% of the 17,232 flights listed. Envoy Air cancelled 2.81% of its flights here against 1.22% for United Airlines.

Delta Air Lines arrived on time 14.2 percentage points more often than American Airlines on this route.

Flights on this route

Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.

Flights on this route
Flight	Scheduled	Operations	On time
DL2039 Delta Air Lines	7:10 AM	751	88.6%

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon76.0%

Tue78.3%

Wed78.2%

Thu78.0%

Fri73.1%

Sat79.9%

Sun73.9%

Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 6.8 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

January is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 15.7 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 71.8% against 79.5% in the 12 months before — declining by 7.7 percentage points.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 17,424 ORD → 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

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

ORD airport DTW airport Return direction DTW → ORD

ORD→DTW

Right now

Route reliability

Why ORD → DTW flights are cancelled

Share of cancellations

What each reason means

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By day and hour

By departure window

By departure hour

Why ORD → DTW runs late

How this route holds up in bad weather

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

This route’s airlines in bad weather at ORD

Airlines on this route

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology