PlainFlights

Airport · DEN · Denver, Colorado

Denver, CO

According to PlainFlights' airport traffic ranking (BTS On-Time Performance total flights), Denver, CO (DEN) ranks #3 of 382 tracked US airports by total flights (most flights = #1). Denver, CO posts bottom-quartile on-time performance among the 382 tracked U.S. airports, as one of the busiest U.S. airports.

Data updated 2026-06-13

78.9%
On-time
Top 88%
on-time, US airports
71 min
Delay when late
1.02%
Cancelled
#3 of 382
Corpus placement
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DEN on-time rate vs. the national average

Behind the U.S. average across all 382 tracked airports.

0%100%U.S. average79%78.9%

Delay Cause Breakdown

Top delay cause: Late Aircraft. Total delay minutes: 23,037,160.

Late Aircraft 40.9% (9,412,127 min)
Carrier 38.6% (8,892,627 min)
NAS (National Aviation System) 15.3% (3,514,456 min)
Weather 5.2% (1,191,141 min)
Security 0.1% (26,809 min)

DEN - seasonal on-time pattern

Best: November (91.4%) · worst: July (84.3%)

82%84%86%88%90%92% JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 87.6%

DEN - on-time rate by year

2020–2025, year-over-year trend.

80%85%90%95%100% 202020212022202320242025 95.4% 87.3% ▼ -8.5%

DEN - taxi-out and taxi-in (monthly)

Average taxi-out 19.2 min · taxi-in 9.8 min over the last 24 reported months (U.S. airport mean taxi-out ≈ 16.4 min).

16 min18 min20 min22 min24 min Jan 24Dec 25 17.8 min 19.4 min ▲ +9.0%

DEN's average taxi-out (19.2 min) runs longer than the recent U.S. airport mean (~16.4 min). The heaviest month in this window is January 2025 at 22.3 min; the lightest is October 2024 at 17.0 min.

Cancellation & Diversion Analysis

Flight disruption statistics for Denver, CO.

Cancellation Rate

1.02%

33,645 of 3,293,040 flights

Diversion Rate

0.13%

4,262 of 3,293,040 flights

Delay Rate

21.1%

696,109 of 3,293,040 flights

Top Routes from DEN

Busiest routes to and from Denver, CO.

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Route Flights On-Time Distance
PHX (Phoenix) → DEN (Denver) 49,558 80.7% 602 mi
DEN (Denver) → PHX (Phoenix) 49,508 77.8% 602 mi
LAS (Las Vegas) → DEN (Denver) 44,661 77.7% 628 mi
DEN (Denver) → LAS (Las Vegas) 44,636 76.1% 628 mi
DEN (Denver) → SLC (Salt Lake City) 43,089 78.3% 391 mi
SLC (Salt Lake City) → DEN (Denver) 43,051 78.8% 391 mi
DEN (Denver) → LAX (Los Angeles) 42,179 80.3% 862 mi
LAX (Los Angeles) → DEN (Denver) 42,014 84.3% 862 mi
DEN (Denver) → SEA (Seattle) 37,116 77.8% 1,024 mi
SEA (Seattle) → DEN (Denver) 37,112 81.1% 1,024 mi
ORD (Chicago) → DEN (Denver) 35,971 79.3% 888 mi
DEN (Denver) → ORD (Chicago) 35,925 76.8% 888 mi
DEN (Denver) → DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth) 33,523 77.5% 641 mi
DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth) → DEN (Denver) 33,503 75.4% 641 mi
ATL (Atlanta) → DEN (Denver) 33,476 79.6% 1,199 mi
DEN (Denver) → ATL (Atlanta) 33,372 79.3% 1,199 mi
DEN (Denver) → MSP (Minneapolis) 32,213 79.9% 680 mi
MSP (Minneapolis) → DEN (Denver) 32,212 82.4% 680 mi
SAN (San Diego) → DEN (Denver) 28,968 82.1% 853 mi
DEN (Denver) → SAN (San Diego) 28,912 78% 853 mi

Nationwide peers by on-time rate & flight volume

Two PlainFlights-derived comparison paths for Denver, CO, both outside Colorado so the neighborhoods are not same-state geography. Axes stay disjoint: volume peers exclude the on-time peer set. Same-state compare stays below.

Similar on-time rate

Nearest out-of-state BTS on-time rate (this airport: 78.9%).

Rockford, IL

Rockford, IL

78.9% on-time 9,512 flights

Cody, WY

Cody, WY

78.9% on-time 7,056 flights

Key West, FL

Key West, FL

79% on-time 93,161 flights

Martha's Vineyard, MA

Martha's Vineyard, MA

78.8% on-time 11,280 flights

Similar flight volume

Nearest out-of-state total flights (this airport: 3,293,040).

Dallas/Fort Worth, TX

Dallas/Fort Worth, TX

3,395,134 flights 78.5% on-time

Chicago, IL

Chicago, IL

3,114,086 flights 81% on-time

Atlanta, GA

Atlanta, GA

3,758,561 flights 83.7% on-time

Charlotte, NC

Charlotte, NC

2,345,248 flights 82% on-time

Other Airports in Colorado

Compare performance with other Colorado airports.

COS 80.4%

Colorado Springs, CO

Colorado Springs · 134,711 flights
ASE 73.5%

Aspen, CO

Aspen · 78,805 flights
GJT 85.1%

Grand Junction, CO

Grand Junction · 47,063 flights
DRO 83.4%

Durango, CO

Durango · 42,722 flights
EGE 78%

Eagle, CO

Eagle · 37,271 flights
MTJ 81.3%

Montrose/Delta, CO

Montrose/Delta · 32,233 flights
HDN 79.7%

Hayden, CO

Hayden · 27,069 flights
GUC 82.9%

Gunnison, CO

Gunnison · 9,819 flights

DEN delay-share reading

The standout signal at Denver, CO is traffic scale: 3,293,040 BTS flights (2020–2025) place it #3 of 382 by book size. That busy-book footprint sits beside a 78.9% on-time rate (0.1 pts below the 79% national flight-weighted average), 696,109 delayed departures, and 33,645 cancellations (1.02% of the book).

Delay minutes concentrate in Late Aircraft (40.9% late-aircraft, 38.6% carrier, 15.3% NAS, 5.2% weather, 0.1% security). As a busy airport, that mix matters more for connection planning than for a thin schedule.

On the multi-year calendar, DEN is strongest in November (91.4% on-time) and weakest in July (84.3%), a 7.1-point swing. Volume peaks in August (~50,020 flights/month). The busiest connecting route is to PHX (Phoenix) at 80.7% on-time. Field definitions: on-time performance explained.

Statewide aggregates for Colorado: Colorado flight data.

Data Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), On-Time Performance Data (2020–2025). Statistics reflect cumulative performance across all available reporting periods. On-time rates exclude cancelled and diverted flights.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Using DEN's data

DEN's on-time book sits in the slower half of the BTS set; check the delay mix and the worst month before treating the headline as typical.

  • Check the busiest route from DEN before you book a connection. See top routes
  • Travel in November rather than July if your dates are flexible. Seasonal patterns
  • Build extra connection buffer when taxi-out spikes. January 2025 averaged 22.3 min. Taxi times

On-time rate reflects the BTS historical average across all reporting carriers at this airport, not any single flight or airline.

Data sourced from U.S. Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) On-Time Performance data. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainFlights

Source: U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) Airline on-time performance and operational reliability · 2025

Every figure on PlainFlights is rendered directly from BTS On-Time Performance data, no number is typed in by an editor. Airport figures are computed directly from BTS On-Time Performance data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.