The flight time from Detroit to San Francisco is 4 hours, 56 minutes. See Data as Tables

Average Timeline

Leaves DTW Detroit, MI on time.
15 minutes taxiing out
4 hours, 31 minutes in the air
7 minutes taxiing in
Arrives SFO San Francisco, CA 13 minutes early.

Flight Reliability By Airline ?

Delta
85%
Frontier
65%
Cancelled
Delayed*
Normal

Flight Summary

The flight time from Detroit to San Francisco is 4 hours, 56 minutes. The time spent in the air is 4 hours, 31 minutes.

The flight distance from Detroit to San Francisco is 2079 Miles.

Reverse Journey

San Francisco to Detroit
4 hours, 23 minutes

Flight Time By Airline ?

Delta
4h 56m
Frontier
5h 3m
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flight Time by Time of Day ?

12AM06AM12PM06PM1h2h3h4h5h
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flights By Time of Day ?
(Average)

12AM06AM12PM06PM0.00.20.40.60.81.0

Flights Per Week

27

Distance

2079 Miles

Flights By Month ?

JFMAMJJASOND050100

Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun012345

Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)

Delta
25
Frontier
2

Frequently Asked Questions

How far is Detroit from San Francisco by plane?

The distance from Detroit to San Francisco by plane is 2079 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 San Francisco?

The flight time from Detroit to San Francisco is 4 hours, 56 minutes. The time spent in the air is 4 hours, 31 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with Delta being the fastest taking 4 hours, 56 minutes, and Frontier the slowest taking 5 hours, 3 minutes.

What airlines fly from Detroit to San Francisco?

Frontier and Delta are the airlines with direct flights from Detroit to San Francisco.

Does Southwest fly from Detroit to San Francisco?

Southwest does not fly from Detroit (DTW) to San Francisco (SFO). 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 on time
Taxi Out Time 15 minutes
In the Air 271 minutes
Taxiing In 7 minutes
Arrives San Francisco 13 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 San Francisco, Frontier is 65% reliable, which means that Frontier flights are on time 65% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled
Delta 85% 14% 1%
Frontier 65% 34% 1%

Flight Time By Airline Flight Time By Airline Chart

Each airline takes a different amount of time to fly between Detroit and San Francisco, 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 15 271 6 296
Frontier 14 275 11 303

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
6pm 0.2
2pm 0.01
10am 0
7am 0.1
5pm 0.12
11am 0.01
12pm 0.95
3pm 0.02
11pm 0.04
1pm 0.01
8pm 0.8
9pm 0.03
9am 0.06
4pm 0.52
7pm 0.02
8am 1.04

Flights By Month Flights By Month Chart

The quantity of flights from Detroit to San Francisco 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 110
February 92
March 110
April 107
May 109
June 123
July 145
August 131
September 138
October 142
November 117
December 128

Flights By Day Of Week Flights By Day of Week Chart

The quantity of flights from Detroit to San Francisco 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 4.15
Tuesday 3.73
Wednesday 3.65
Thursday 4.33
Friday 4.19
Saturday 3.56
Sunday 4.31

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
Delta 0
Frontier 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)
6pm 15 281 6 304
2pm 15 269 8 289
10am 11 270 12 293
7am 13 279 11 308
5pm 13 271 11 299
11am 13 288 11 315
12pm 14 270 7 294
3pm 15 274 7 295
11pm 15 268 5 287
1pm 12 275 6 304
8pm 15 271 7 297
9pm 19 275 6 302
9am 14 275 11 301
4pm 15 270 6 291
7pm 16 306 6 336
8am 17 271 6 298
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.