Carrier performance at one airport
AA→DEN
American Airlines at Denver International
- Departures
- 8,855
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 6
- Rank here
- #5 of 9
American Airlines at Denver lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in four arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 8,855 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 11,605 at 82.4% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs half a point ahead of the 76.0% weighted average across all carriers at DEN. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
76.6%
8,645 completed departures
Avg delay
104 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.03%
At DEN, this carrier only
Rank here
#5
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at DEN
These figures cover 8,855 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.9% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Against the competition
Every carrier at DEN, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 82.4% of the time; Allegiant Air manages 65.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 413 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 11,605 | 82.4% | 79 min | 1.36% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 75,448 | 79.4% | 79 min | 1.19% | B |
| United Airlines | 106,792 | 78.2% | 65 min | 0.48% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 22,257 | 77.1% | 68 min | 0.76% | B+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 8,855 | 76.6% | 104 min | 2.03% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 2,642 | 74.3% | 58 min | 0.87% | C+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 89,073 | 69.6% | 55 min | 0.71% | C+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,242 | 69.0% | 91 min | 2.66% | C |
| Allegiant Air | 413 | 65.1% | 128 min | 1.45% | C |
The spread between Delta and Allegiant is 17 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 17 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Where American Airlines flies from DEN
American Airlines operates 6 routes out of DEN with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DEN to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 2,972 | 73.5% | 101 min | 3.16% | C− |
| DEN to CLT · Charlotte | 1,717 | 84.7% | 88 min | 1.40% | B |
| DEN to ORD · Chicago | 1,469 | 72.1% | 122 min | 1.84% | C |
| DEN to PHX · Phoenix | 959 | 76.9% | 114 min | 0.83% | B+ |
| DEN to MIA · Miami | 885 | 76.6% | 103 min | 1.13% | B |
| DEN to PHL · Philadelphia | 853 | 78.5% | 91 min | 1.99% | B |
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 36 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,962 flights88.1%
- 8am–11am1,959 flights79.8%
- 11am–2pm1,789 flights76.7%
- 2pm–5pm1,651 flights69.9%
- 5pm–8pm787 flights52.1%
- 8pm–5am707 flights77.9%
Scale runs 45% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 52.1% on time, against 88.1% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
June is the worst month at 63.8% on time, 22 points below November, the best at 85.3%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 38%Carrier
- 12%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
46% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 210,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 11 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit.
Cancellations sit at 2.03% against a national 1.80%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.34%.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 9.9% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.2% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The sample behind these figures is 8,855 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. November runs 85.3% on time and June 63.8%, a swing of 22 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else.
Common questions
American Airlines at DEN
How often is American Airlines at DEN delayed?
About one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.4% of the 8,855 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
Which airline is most reliable on American Airlines at DEN?
Delta Air Lines leads at 82.4% on time across 11,605 flights. Allegiant Air is at the other end on 65.1%, a gap of 17 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on American Airlines at DEN?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.1% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 52.1%, 36 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are June delays on American Airlines at DEN?
June is the weakest month at 63.8% on time, compared with 85.3% in November. Across the year that is 22 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.