Route profile
PHX→DTW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Phoenix to Detroit, 1,671 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 73% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,222 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
PHX → DTW arrives on time 83.2% of the time; the return trip, DTW → PHX, arrives on time 78.9% of the time, a 4.4-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
PHX → DTW spends 25.7 minutes on the ground on a 1,671-mile trip: 15.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PHX and 10.7 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 PHX to DTW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PHX to DTW is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 11 AM: 88.2% arrive on time, 10.3 points ahead of the 77.9% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.2 points.
PHX to DTW holds up on Thursdays better than routes of similar length do: 85.2% on time to their 76.5%, a 8.7 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 8.4 points.
June is kinder to PHX to DTW than to routes of similar length: 81.7% on time against 71.8%, 9.9 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9 points.
Frontier Airlines does better on PHX to DTW than on its routes of similar length: 80.2% on time here, 69.5% there, 10.7 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 9 points.
PHX to DTW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 11 AM departures | 88.2% | routes of similar length | 77.9% | +10.3 pts | 651 here, 89,227 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 85.2% | routes of similar length | 76.5% | +8.7 pts | 1,052 here, 219,193 there |
| Month: June | 81.7% | routes of similar length | 71.8% | +9.9 pts | 591 here, 130,665 there |
| Airline: Frontier Airlines | 80.2% | routes of similar length | 69.5% | +10.7 pts | 1,011 here, 62,207 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 1,671 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 PHX → DTW flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
PHX → DTW cancelled 57 of 7,222 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 127. The reason filed most often was the airline, 77.2% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 164 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 57 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.
44 cancellations, 77.2% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
12 cancellations, 21.1% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
1 cancellation, 1.8% 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.
57 coded cancellations were recorded on PHX → DTW; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
31 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 7,222 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DTW after arriving from PHX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 34% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 16% | High risk |
| 60 min | 10% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.5% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.6% | 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 0.79% of the time and diverts 0.29% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,144 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 31 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,222 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PHX → DTW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.0% of the time, against 76.2% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 13.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 91.6% on time from 1,138 flights
- 7 AM: 87.2% on time from 204 flights
- 8 AM: 85.8% on time from 225 flights
- 9 AM: 83.2% on time from 613 flights
- 10 AM: 85.6% on time from 472 flights
- 11 AM: 88.2% on time from 657 flights
- 12 PM: 84.5% on time from 419 flights
- 1 PM: 85.0% on time from 153 flights
- 2 PM: 82.9% on time from 257 flights
- 3 PM: 77.2% on time from 681 flights
- 4 PM: 75.5% on time from 642 flights
- 5 PM: 74.4% on time from 132 flights
- 6 PM to 9 PM: too few flights to score
- 10 PM: 82.5% on time from 432 flights
- 11 PM: 80.0% on time from 927 flights
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why PHX → 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 PHX → 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 | 4,178 | 86.2% | 0.74% | -8 min | 4.8% |
| American Airlines | 1,753 | 78.7% | 0.57% | -6 min | 7.3% |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,026 | 80.2% | 1.36% | -6 min | 6.2% |
Delta Air Lines flew 60.1% of the 6,957 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 7.5 percentage points more often than American Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 5.8 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 82.2%
- Feb: 88.5%
- Mar: 78.4%
- Apr: 83.8%
- May: 80.0%
- Jun: 81.7%
- Jul: 78.6%
- Aug: 85.0%
- Sep: 85.9%
- Oct: 85.3%
- Nov: 90.2%
- Dec: 82.7%
March is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 11.8 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 84.6% from 186 flights
- August 2023: 87.8% from 177 flights
- September 2023: 86.7% from 196 flights
- October 2023: 87.2% from 187 flights
- November 2023: 90.4% from 178 flights
- December 2023: 88.3% from 188 flights
- January 2024: 80.0% from 169 flights
- February 2024: 91.6% from 155 flights
- March 2024: 81.3% from 193 flights
- April 2024: 84.1% from 209 flights
- May 2024: 82.3% from 194 flights
- June 2024: 87.4% from 185 flights
- July 2024: 78.7% from 209 flights
- August 2024: 82.1% from 199 flights
- September 2024: 86.6% from 188 flights
- October 2024: 85.9% from 205 flights
- November 2024: 96.4% from 192 flights
- December 2024: 84.9% from 206 flights
- January 2025: 85.7% from 169 flights
- February 2025: 87.8% from 157 flights
- March 2025: 82.4% from 211 flights
- April 2025: 83.5% from 210 flights
- May 2025: 76.9% from 208 flights
- June 2025: 81.8% from 216 flights
- July 2025: 78.0% from 238 flights
- August 2025: 85.4% from 185 flights
- September 2025: 84.2% from 183 flights
- October 2025: 83.1% from 215 flights
- November 2025: 84.1% from 197 flights
- December 2025: 75.7% from 222 flights
- January 2026: 80.9% from 183 flights
- February 2026: 86.2% from 159 flights
- March 2026: 72.0% from 218 flights
- April 2026: 83.9% from 211 flights
- May 2026: 81.0% from 217 flights
- June 2026: 76.4% from 198 flights
- July 2026: 73.8% from 209 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.3% against 84.0% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,222 PHX → 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