PlainFlights

SEA vs DTW - Airport Comparison

Select two airports to compare on-time performance, delays, cancellations, and top routes using U.S. Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) data (2020–2025) across all 50 states. See our methodology for how metrics are computed.

Airport A
SEA

Seattle, WA

Seattle, Washington

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Airport B
DTW

Detroit, MI

Detroit, Michigan

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Key Performance Metrics

BTS on-time performance data, 2020–2025 cumulative.

Metric SEA DTW
On-Time Rate (higher is better) 83.1% 84.8%
Avg Delay (lower is better) 63.4 min 81.3 min
Delay Rate (lower is better) 16.9% 15.2%
Cancellation Rate (lower is better) 0.73% 0.82%
Total Flights 1,871,155 1,488,949
Delayed Flights 315,819 226,988
Cancelled Flights 13,720 12,186
Top Delay Cause Carrier Carrier

✓ / ▲ indicates the more favorable value. Data: BTS On-Time Performance, 2020–2025.

Delay Cause Breakdown

SEA - Seattle, WA

Carrier 44.3%
Late Aircraft 28.6%
NAS 21.0%
Weather 5.8%
Security 0.3%

DTW - Detroit, MI

Carrier 51.7%
NAS 20.1%
Late Aircraft 19.3%
Weather 8.7%
Security 0.1%

Top Routes

Top routes from SEA

Route Flights On-Time
SEA → LAX
Los Angeles
41,859 84%
LAX → SEA
Seattle
41,819 86.2%
SEA → ANC
Anchorage
41,143 77.5%
ANC → SEA
Seattle
41,064 85.8%
PHX → SEA
Seattle
38,561 84.3%
SEA → PHX
Phoenix
38,549 82.3%

Top routes from DTW

Route Flights On-Time
ORD → DTW
Detroit
29,459 81.6%
DTW → ORD
Chicago
29,443 82.5%
ATL → DTW
Detroit
27,906 82.3%
DTW → ATL
Atlanta
27,904 84.6%
MCO → DTW
Detroit
21,666 77.4%
DTW → MCO
Orlando
21,656 80.5%

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), On-Time Performance Data (2020–2025) Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), On-Time Performance Data (2020–2025) On-time rates exclude cancelled and diverted flights. PlainFlights is not affiliated with BTS or the DOT

Every figure on PlainFlights is rendered directly from BTS On-Time Performance data, no number is typed in by an editor. This tool queries live on-time, delay, and cancellation figures for the two selected airports from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.