Carrier performance at one airport
AA→DEN
American Airlines at Denver International
- Departures
- 8,874
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 6
- Rank here
- #5 of 9
American Airlines at Denver lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.6%. 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 8,874 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 11,579 at 83.1% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs half a point ahead of the 76.3% 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
76.8%
8,659 completed departures
Avg delay
104 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.12%
At DEN, this carrier only
Rank here
#5
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at DEN
These figures cover 8,874 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.8% 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 83.1% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 68.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,249 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 11,579 | 83.1% | 77 min | 1.33% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 75,349 | 80.0% | 77 min | 1.13% | B |
| United Airlines | 107,305 | 78.4% | 64 min | 0.46% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 22,581 | 78.0% | 67 min | 0.73% | B+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 8,874 | 76.8% | 104 min | 2.12% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 2,700 | 76.0% | 56 min | 0.89% | B+ |
| Allegiant Air | 395 | 70.3% | 110 min | 1.27% | C |
| Southwest Airlines | 88,768 | 69.4% | 54 min | 0.70% | C+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,249 | 68.9% | 89 min | 2.80% | C |
The spread between Delta and JetBlue is 14 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 14 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 | 2,955 | 73.3% | 100 min | 3.42% | C− |
| DEN to CLT · Charlotte | 1,715 | 85.1% | 76 min | 1.40% | A |
| DEN to ORD · Chicago | 1,469 | 73.0% | 124 min | 2.04% | C |
| DEN to PHX · Phoenix | 972 | 76.9% | 120 min | 0.82% | B+ |
| DEN to MIA · Miami | 886 | 76.6% | 102 min | 1.02% | B |
| DEN to PHL · Philadelphia | 877 | 78.8% | 103 min | 1.82% | 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 35 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,963 flights88.3%
- 8am–11am1,963 flights79.9%
- 11am–2pm1,777 flights76.2%
- 2pm–5pm1,642 flights70.6%
- 5pm–8pm800 flights52.9%
- 8pm–5am729 flights78.5%
Scale runs 45% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 52.9% on time, against 88.3% 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. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 1,963 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 65.9% on time, 19 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. June was the busiest month here, with 805 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 39%Carrier
- 11%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
45% 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 209,000 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. The split is drawn from 209,461 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.12% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.30%.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 9.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% 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 8,874 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 July 65.9%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 8,659 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
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 23.2% of the 8,874 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% 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 83.1% on time across 11,579 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 68.9%, a gap of 14 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 88.3% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 52.9%, 35 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 July delays on American Airlines at DEN?
July is the weakest month at 65.9% on time, compared with 85.3% in November. Across the year that is 19 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
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Denver International (DEN) all carriers
- DEN to DFW route record73.3%
- DEN to CLT route record85.1%
- DEN to ORD route record73.0%
- DEN to PHX route record76.9%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.