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DEN vs DSM - Airport Comparison

Select two airports to compare on-time performance, delays, cancellations, and top routes using U.S. Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) data (2020–2025) across all 50 states. See our methodology for how metrics are computed.

Airport A
DEN

Denver, CO

Denver, Colorado

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Airport B
DSM

Des Moines, IA

Des Moines, Iowa

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Key Performance Metrics

BTS on-time performance data, 2020–2025 cumulative.

Metric DEN DSM
On-Time Rate (higher is better) 78.9% 82.6%
Avg Delay (lower is better) 70.9 min 82.0 min
Delay Rate (lower is better) 21.1% 17.4%
Cancellation Rate (lower is better) 1.02% 1.15%
Total Flights 3,293,040 169,476
Delayed Flights 696,109 29,533
Cancelled Flights 33,645 1,950
Top Delay Cause Late Aircraft Carrier

✓ / ▲ indicates the more favorable value. Data: BTS On-Time Performance, 2020–2025.

Delay Cause Breakdown

DEN - Denver, CO

Late Aircraft 40.9%
Carrier 38.6%
NAS 15.3%
Weather 5.2%
Security 0.1%

DSM - Des Moines, IA

Carrier 41.0%
Late Aircraft 31.9%
NAS 19.0%
Weather 7.9%
Security 0.2%

Top Routes

Top routes from DEN

Route Flights On-Time
PHX → DEN
Denver
49,558 80.7%
DEN → PHX
Phoenix
49,508 77.8%
LAS → DEN
Denver
44,661 77.7%
DEN → LAS
Las Vegas
44,636 76.1%
DEN → SLC
Salt Lake City
43,089 78.3%
SLC → DEN
Denver
43,051 78.8%

Top routes from DSM

Route Flights On-Time
ORD → DSM
Des Moines
12,645 79.6%
DSM → ORD
Chicago
12,641 82.9%
DSM → DEN
Denver
12,369 82.5%
DEN → DSM
Des Moines
12,367 78.7%
DFW → DSM
Des Moines
7,556 74.2%
DSM → DFW
Dallas/Fort Worth
7,556 77.9%

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), On-Time Performance Data (2020–2025) Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), On-Time Performance Data (2020–2025) On-time rates exclude cancelled and diverted flights. PlainFlights is not affiliated with BTS or the DOT

Every figure on PlainFlights is rendered directly from BTS On-Time Performance data, no number is typed in by an editor. This tool queries live on-time, delay, and cancellation figures for the two selected airports from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.