Route profile
RDU→DTW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Raleigh–Durham to Detroit, 501 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 82% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,664 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
RDU → DTW arrives on time 86.6% of the time; the return trip, DTW → RDU, arrives on time 84.0% of the time, a 2.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
RDU → DTW spends 23.9 minutes on the ground on a 501-mile trip: 14.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at RDU and 9.1 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 RDU to DTW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
RDU to DTW is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 81.4% arrive on time, 10.6 points ahead of the 70.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.6 points.
RDU to DTW holds up on Thursdays better than routes of similar length do: 86.9% on time to their 77.9%, a 9 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 10.1 points.
May is kinder to RDU to DTW than to routes of similar length: 87.7% on time against 76.0%, 11.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 12.5 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on RDU to DTW than on its routes of similar length: 87.8% on time here, 83.1% there, 4.7 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 6.3 points.
RDU to DTW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 81.4% | routes of similar length | 70.8% | +10.6 pts | 512 here, 105,185 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 86.9% | routes of similar length | 77.9% | +9.0 pts | 711 here, 214,860 there |
| Month: May | 87.7% | routes of similar length | 76.0% | +11.7 pts | 398 here, 120,134 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 87.8% | routes of similar length | 83.1% | +4.7 pts | 4,050 here, 285,434 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 501 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.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
27 min late
against a median of 11 min early
Percentiles over 4,664 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DTW after arriving from RDU.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 24% | High risk |
| 45 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 9.3% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.3% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.4% | 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 1.03% of the time and diverts 0.13% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,610 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 27 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,664 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
RDU → DTW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 93.2% of the time, against 76.6% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 16.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 93.1% on time from 897 flights
- 6 AM: 93.9% on time from 213 flights
- 7 AM to 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 92.1% on time from 779 flights
- 10 AM to 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 85.0% on time from 205 flights
- 1 PM: 86.5% on time from 899 flights
- 2 PM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 73.9% on time from 122 flights
- 5 PM: 81.4% on time from 517 flights
- 6 PM: 76.4% on time from 706 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why RDU → DTW runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for RDU → DTW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on RDU → DTW, at 45.6%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 93.2% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 76.6%.
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 | 4,090 | 87.8% | 0.83% | -12 min | 5.0% |
| Frontier Airlines | 401 | 75.2% | 3.49% | -4 min | 7.8% |
Delta Air Lines flew 91.1% of the 4,491 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 3.49% of its flights here against 0.83% for Delta Air Lines.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 12.6 percentage points more often than Frontier 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL1388 Delta Air Lines | 5:45 AM | 785 | 93.4% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 84.9%
- Feb: 90.1%
- Mar: 89.4%
- Apr: 90.0%
- May: 87.7%
- Jun: 84.0%
- Jul: 79.5%
- Aug: 80.9%
- Sep: 88.7%
- Oct: 91.5%
- Nov: 91.3%
- Dec: 85.4%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 12.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 79.4% from 137 flights
- August 2023: 85.9% from 140 flights
- September 2023: 87.1% from 124 flights
- October 2023: 90.7% from 129 flights
- November 2023: too few flights to score (113)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (101)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (105)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (92)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (119)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- May 2024: 85.2% from 135 flights
- June 2024: 78.2% from 149 flights
- July 2024: 77.3% from 153 flights
- August 2024: 72.9% from 142 flights
- September 2024: 85.9% from 129 flights
- October 2024: 87.8% from 132 flights
- November 2024: 91.3% from 127 flights
- December 2024: too few flights to score (115)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (104)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (102)
- March 2025: 89.9% from 130 flights
- April 2025: 92.2% from 129 flights
- May 2025: 88.9% from 144 flights
- June 2025: 82.4% from 155 flights
- July 2025: 80.3% from 143 flights
- August 2025: 84.0% from 151 flights
- September 2025: 93.1% from 130 flights
- October 2025: 95.7% from 141 flights
- November 2025: 89.3% from 150 flights
- December 2025: 75.4% from 124 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (103)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (99)
- March 2026: 86.0% from 122 flights
- April 2026: 88.0% from 128 flights
- May 2026: 89.1% from 121 flights
- June 2026: too few flights to score (113)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (117)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 87.8% against 85.6% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,664 RDU → 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