Carrier performance at one airport
AA→DEN
American Airlines at Denver International
- Departures
- 8,936
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 6
- Rank here
- #6 of 9
American Airlines at Denver lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That rests on 8,936 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 11,497 at 83.1% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs half a point ahead of the 76.7% 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
77.1%
8,735 completed departures
Avg delay
105 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.97%
At DEN, this carrier only
Rank here
#6
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at DEN
These figures cover 8,936 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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 65.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,258 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 11,497 | 83.1% | 75 min | 1.37% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 75,223 | 80.4% | 78 min | 1.09% | B |
| United Airlines | 107,895 | 78.9% | 65 min | 0.41% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 22,870 | 78.5% | 68 min | 0.77% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 2,879 | 78.1% | 57 min | 0.66% | B+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 8,936 | 77.1% | 105 min | 1.97% | B |
| Allegiant Air | 373 | 76.5% | 94 min | 0.54% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 88,424 | 69.5% | 54 min | 0.72% | C+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,258 | 65.7% | 93 min | 4.61% | C− |
JetBlue Airways cancels 4.6% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
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 | 2,939 | 74.5% | 97 min | 2.96% | C |
| DEN to CLT · Charlotte | 1,724 | 84.5% | 82 min | 1.28% | B |
| DEN to ORD · Chicago | 1,473 | 73.3% | 119 min | 1.83% | C |
| DEN to PHX · Phoenix | 985 | 75.4% | 134 min | 1.12% | B |
| DEN to PHL · Philadelphia | 925 | 78.7% | 113 min | 2.16% | B |
| DEN to MIA · Miami | 890 | 77.8% | 96 min | 1.01% | B |
Flight by flight
American Airlines flight numbers from DEN
4 American Airlines flight numbers leaving DEN flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
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 33 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,977 flights87.9%
- 8am–11am1,978 flights80.8%
- 11am–2pm1,791 flights76.0%
- 2pm–5pm1,640 flights69.9%
- 5pm–8pm786 flights55.1%
- 8pm–5am764 flights79.4%
Scale runs 45% to 95%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 55.1% on time, against 87.9% 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 1,978 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
June is the worst month at 66.2% 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. July was the busiest month here, with 831 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 42%Carrier
- 11%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
44% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 210,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 14 to one. The split is drawn from 210,156 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.97% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.28%.
9.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The sample behind these figures is 8,936 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 66.2%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 8,735 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
American Airlines at DEN
How often is American Airlines at DEN delayed?
Roughly one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 22.9% of the 8,936 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% 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 11,497 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 65.7%, 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 87.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 55.1%, 33 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 66.2% 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 record74.5%
- DEN to CLT route record84.5%
- DEN to ORD route record73.3%
- DEN to PHX route record75.4%
- Denver, Salt Lake City, Phoenix and Las Vegas: the Mountain West hubs
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.