Storms hit DTW on-time departures

Detroit Metro had fewer on-time departures when winter storms disrupted holiday travel, new government data shows.

By the numbers: 77.5% of domestic flights departed Detroit Metro on time in December 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

• That's down from 86.2% in November 2022, an 8.7 percentage point drop, per recently released data from the department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Zoom out: Nationally, just 69.1% of December's flights departed on time.

• That monthly figure is generally between 75%-80%, albeit with predictable dips in the busy — and often meteorologically challenging — summer and winter travel seasons, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick and Kavya Beheraj report.

Between the lines: The real story in December was, of course, Southwest Airlines' meltdown.

• 61.6% of December Southwest flights departed DTW on time compared to 57.3% nationally.

The big picture: Southwest has promised to update key systems that exacerbated December's meltdown, as well as to better communicate with passengers whose flights are delayed or canceled in the future.