The flight time from Detroit to Chicago is 1 hour, 21 minutes. See Data as Tables

Average Timeline

Leaves DTW Detroit, MI 4 minutes early.
15 minutes taxiing out
48 minutes in the air
16 minutes taxiing in
Arrives ORD Chicago, IL 8 minutes early.

Flight Reliability By Airline ?

Delta
85%
United
84%
American
80%
Spirit
79%
Cancelled
Delayed*
Normal

Flight Summary

The flight time from Detroit to Chicago is 1 hour, 21 minutes. The time spent in the air is 48 minutes.

The flight distance from Detroit to Chicago is 235 Miles.

Reverse Journey

Chicago to Detroit
1 hour, 18 minutes

Flight Time By Airline ?

Delta
1h 18m
Spirit
1h 20m
American
1h 21m
United
1h 23m
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flight Time by Time of Day ?

12AM06AM12PM06PM 30m1h
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flights By Time of Day ?
(Average)

12AM06AM12PM06PM0.00.51.01.52.0

Flights Per Week

108

Distance

235 Miles

Flights By Month ?

JFMAMJJASOND0200400

Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun051015

Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)

United
41
Delta
36
American
28
Spirit
2

Frequently Asked Questions

How far is Detroit from Chicago by plane?

The distance from Detroit to Chicago by plane is 235 Miles. This is the air distance on the most direct route taken by the vast majority of flights.

How long is the flight from Detroit to Chicago?

The flight time from Detroit to Chicago is 1 hour, 21 minutes. The time spent in the air is 48 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with Delta being the fastest taking 1 hour, 18 minutes, and United the slowest taking 1 hour, 23 minutes.

What airlines fly from Detroit to Chicago?

American, Spirit, Delta, and United are the airlines with direct flights from Detroit to Chicago.

Does Southwest fly from Detroit to Chicago?

Southwest does not fly from Detroit (DTW) to Chicago (ORD). Keep in mind that Southwest may fly to other nearby airports, as they will often fly into smaller airpors instead of larger ones. This is because the costs are often lower to fly into smaller airports, and they pass the savings on to you.

Tables and Explanations

Data Source

Our information is computed from the latest available data from the US Department of Transportation.

Average Timeline Timeline Chart

The average timeline contains the median time a flight spends in 3 stages. The first of these three stages is taxiing out which includes the time from the flight leaving the gate to taking off. The second stage is in the air, which includes the time spent from the flight leaving the ground to touching back down at the end of it's journey. The last stage is taxiing in, which is from when the flight touches down to the flight arriving at it's gate.

The average timeline also estimates on average of when the flight will leave and arrive relative to it's stated departure time.

Leaves Detroit 4 minutes early
Taxi Out Time 15 minutes
In the Air 48 minutes
Taxiing In 16 minutes
Arrives Chicago 8 minutes early

Flight Reliability Reliability Chart

The reliability of an airline measures how often the airline's flights on this route are cancelled or delayed more than 20 minutes. For example, from Detroit to Chicago, Spirit is 79% reliable, which means that Spirit flights are on time 79% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled
Delta 85% 14% 1%
United 84% 15% 1%
American 80% 19% 1%
Spirit 79% 20% 1%

Flight Time By Airline Flight Time By Airline Chart

Each airline takes a different amount of time to fly between Detroit and Chicago, this is due to different operational factors on the ground, as well as scheduling of planes. Each airline's flight time is split into three stages which are described above in the "Average Timeline" section. There are also miscellaneous operational issues which are included in the below total but are not accounted for in one of the three stages.

Airline Taxiing Out
(minutes)
In the Air
(minutes)
Taxiing In
(minutes)
Total
(minutes)
Delta 15 47 14 78
Spirit 12 46 19 80
American 15 48 16 81
United 16 48 17 83

Flights By Time of Day Flight Time By Day Chart

This one is pretty self explanatory, it represents the number of flights that leave the gate in a given hour of the day. The tricky thing here is that this is normally not a whole number since it is an average over 52 weeks. Partial numbers may indicate that a flight may be seasonal or may take off at different times due to different operational factors.

Time Count
2pm 0.71
5pm 1
4pm 1.01
9pm 0.16
8pm 0.74
10am 0.41
3pm 0.09
1pm 0.57
9am 1.37
6pm 1.48
8am 1.13
7am 1.74
12pm 1.29
7pm 0.25
5am 0.08
11am 1.31
6am 1.95

Flights By Month Flights By Month Chart

The quantity of flights from Detroit to Chicago that take off in a given month of the year. This number changes because some flights are seasonal, and almost all flights have uneven demand througout the year.

Month Count
January 395
February 393
March 453
April 464
May 485
June 470
July 476
August 531
September 517
October 551
November 463
December 462

Flights By Day Of Week Flights By Day of Week Chart

The quantity of flights from Detroit to Chicago that take off on a given day of the week. Some routes only have enough demand to sustain a few trips a week, while others have many flights a day. This number is also an average across the year, and hence may not be a whole number.

Day Count
Monday 16.13
Tuesday 15.67
Wednesday 15.56
Thursday 15.71
Friday 16
Saturday 14.12
Sunday 15.65

Flight per Airline (per Week) Flights By Airline Chart

How many times an airline flies this route in a week. Different factors play into how often a carrier chooses to fly a given route including it's need to connect disparate routes, and demand.

Airline Flights per Week
United 1
Delta 1
American 1
Spirit 0

Flight Time By Time of Day Flight Time by Time of Day Chart

The total flight time varies by each hour of the day due to factors such as airport traffic. More flights leaving an airport may cause higher taxi in or taxi out times. See the description of the average timeline above for a deeper discussion of each of these times.

Time Taxi Out
(minutes)
In the Air
(minutes)
Taxi In
(minutes)
Total
(minutes)
2pm 14 49 19 84
5pm 14 48 18 83
4pm 13 48 14 76
9pm 18 47 9 74
8pm 13 46 11 73
10am 14 46 14 76
3pm 14 47 14 75
1pm 15 48 16 81
9am 16 48 18 83
6pm 15 48 23 89
8am 17 47 16 82
7am 19 49 17 87
12pm 14 48 13 77
7pm 13 49 20 86
5am 10 45 10 66
11am 14 47 16 78
6am 16 47 12 76
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.