Connecting at Detroit: McNamara, Evans and the shuttle between them

Last checked 24 September 2026

Is a 45-minute layover enough in Detroit?

We estimate about 17% of 45-minute connections at Detroit (DTW) ended in a missed connection between September 2025 and August 2026. How we count a missed connection

Allow 79 minutes for a connection in the same terminal at Detroit (DTW), or 114 minutes if you change terminal.

Based on U.S. Customs and Border Protection's hourly figures, passport control at Detroit (DTW) averaged 16 minutes across its terminals (U.S. citizens 14 minutes, non-U.S. citizens 21; September 2025 to August 2026). That figure leaves out collecting and re-checking bags and the security re-screen, which at large US hubs we estimate add about 30 to 45 minutes.

Check your exact flights →

Detroit is two airports under one name. The McNamara Terminal is Delta's home, shared with partners such as Air France, Aeroméxico and WestJet. The Evans Terminal has everyone else. If both your flights are in the same terminal, you stay behind security. If you're switching between McNamara and Evans, you're taking a shuttle and going through security again.

At a glance

• Delta to Delta: both flights are in McNamara, so you stay behind security.
• McNamara ↔ Evans: leave security, take the free terminal shuttle (about every 10 minutes) and go through TSA again.
• Long walks in Concourse A: the ExpressTram runs the length of the concourse.
• The airport's rule of thumb: 40 minutes can be enough for a domestic connection on the same airline. Allow more if you're changing airlines or flying internationally.

Who flies from where

• McNamara Terminal: Delta, Air France, Aeroméxico and WestJet, plus Vacation Express charters.
• Evans Terminal: Air Canada, Alaska, American, Avelo, Frontier, JetBlue, Lufthansa, Royal Jordanian, Southwest, Sun Country, Turkish Airlines, United and Volaris, plus Apple Vacations charters.

Your boarding pass may show McNamara as EM and Evans as WE.

Connections inside McNamara

If you're connecting Delta to Delta, both flights are in McNamara and you stay behind security. Concourse A is long. To help you reach gates at the far end, the ExpressTram runs along the whole concourse. It only serves Concourse A, though. It doesn't go to Concourses B and C or to the Evans Terminal.

Switching between McNamara and Evans

To change terminals, follow the signs to ground transportation and wait for the Terminal to Terminal shuttle. It leaves about every 10 minutes from the Ground Transportation Centers and from the Westin Hotel entrance at McNamara. The airport is clear on what happens next: "If you need to switch terminals, you must clear security screening before entering."

That makes a terminal change at DTW three separate steps: the wait for the shuttle, the ride, and a second security queue. GateCast treats the change as leaving security and clearing it again, and budgets one block of time to cover all three. That's why a Delta-to-United connection in Detroit grades lower than a Delta-to-Delta one with the same time on the ticket.

How much time to allow

The airport's own guidance is that 40 minutes should be enough for a domestic connection when you're not changing airlines. For an international connection, or when you're changing airlines, it suggests allowing more. GateCast's grade shows how much margin a specific connection really has, including the terminal change if there is one.

Tips

• Check the terminal code on your boarding pass: EM is McNamara, WE is Evans.
• If your gate is at the far end of Concourse A, use the ExpressTram.
• If you're switching terminals, head straight for ground transportation. The shuttle comes about every 10 minutes, but security at the other end is the part you can't predict.

How we count a missed connection

The layover times and missed-connection percentages on this page are estimates from our model, built on US DOT records (September 2025 to August 2026), with no guarantee; never book shorter than your airline's minimum connection time.

Each time is our model's point estimate of where the fitted missed-connection curve levels off, from past flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The curve is calculated at 5-minute steps and joined by straight lines. Giving the time to the minute does not make it more certain: when we re-ran the estimate on 200 resampled sets of days, 95% of the times at Detroit (DTW) for staying in the same terminal fell between 74 and 83 minutes, and for changing terminal between 85 and 144 minutes.

A missed connection means the real delays and cancellations that day left less time than our estimate of how long the change takes; estimated from US DOT on-time records for September 2025 to August 2026, with no passenger data.

The 45-minute figure is the estimated share of connections at Detroit (DTW) that ended in a missed connection. The time in the box is the shortest layover after which another 15 minutes lowers the estimated missed-connection rate by less than 1 percentage point, on a curve fitted so that it never rises. The 1 percentage point is a judgement constant that we set. Extra time helps less and less because cancellations and long delays cause missed connections at any gap. At Detroit (DTW), the estimated missed-connection rate was 9.0% at 79 minutes if you stay in the same terminal, and 13.1% at 114 minutes if you change terminal (share of connections, September 2025 to August 2026). An estimated 1% of the 45-minute connections at Detroit (DTW) were already shorter than our estimate of the change on the schedule. We don't give a figure for 30 minutes. A 30-minute connection is about as long as our own estimate of the change (typically 26 to 31 minutes at one terminal) and often shorter, so a percentage would mostly come from that estimate.

The passport-control figure is our average of U.S. Customs and Border Protection's hourly averages at Detroit (DTW), weighted by passengers, for flights arriving between September 2025 and August 2026 (CBP Airport Wait Times, awt.cbp.gov, downloaded 22 October 2026). CBP says its wait times "do not include time to retrieve baggage or navigate through the airport." The 30 to 45 minutes for bags and the security re-screen is our rough estimate for large US hubs, based on airlines' stated savings of up to 25 minutes for bag transfer and up to 45 minutes for skipping the re-screen in their international-connection trials, and on traveller reports; actual times vary widely and we have no figure for Detroit (DTW) alone.

Checked 24 September 2026; layover figures checked 23 October 2026; passport-control figures checked 22 October 2026. Terminals and airlines change, so confirm with your airline before you travel.

Search flights from Detroit (DTW) on Kiwi.com (affiliate link)

Book hotels near DTW Sponsored