DCA to DTW flight delays

What the record says about this route

Cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth pricing here: 5.6% of scheduled flights never operated. A late flight still gets you there. A cancelled one leaves you rebooking, and on a route with few daily departures that can mean losing a day.

Only Delta Air Lines flies this route in the published record, so there is no choice to weigh — the route's figures and the airline's are the same figures.

This is a thin route — 232 flights across the whole period. On a route this infrequent a cancellation is far more costly than the rate suggests, because the next departure may not be the same day.

Flights from Washington to Detroit run late more often than the average route, though not severely.

What these figures do and do not tell you

Everything on this page is counted from the flights that actually operated on DCA to DTW during March 2025 – August 2026, as reported by the airlines to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. "On time" is the federal definition: arriving at the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.

A route's record is a description of the past, not a forecast. Weather, air traffic control and the aircraft's earlier flights that day drive most delays, and none of them are predictable from a historical rate. What the record does tell you is whether this route runs late more often than others, and which carrier on it has the better history — which is the part you can actually act on when you book.

Cancellations are counted separately from delays because they are a different problem for a traveller: a late flight still gets you there. How the grade is calculated →