Airport month record

DENFEB

Denver International in February 2026

Departures: 23,046
Month: February 2026
National, same month: 80.2%
Carriers: 9

Historical statistics for February 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s February. For today’s conditions at DEN, see live FAA status.

DEN in February lands a B+, 2 points better than the national rate of 80.2%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 23,046 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 734 at 88.3% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 88.3% on time across 734 flights.

On time

82.4%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 22,797 completed departures

Avg delay

69 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.88%

Nationally in February: 2.25%

Whole year

76.3%

DEN across all twelve months

These figures cover 23,046 departures from Denver International in February 2026. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.

Against the year

February next to DEN's other months

Against DEN's own year, February ran 6 points better than the twelve-month rate of 76.3%, which makes it number three of twelve months, best first. Either side of it, January ran 82.3% on time and March 76.8%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.

DEN month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	29,433	63.0%	77 min	1.48%	D
August 2025	28,084	70.1%	69 min	0.73%	C+
September 2025	26,548	79.4%	54 min	0.12%	B+
October 2025	27,763	80.8%	52 min	0.13%	B+
November 2025	25,280	84.7%	62 min	1.44%	B
December 2025	26,026	74.3%	68 min	0.64%	C+
January 2026	24,484	82.3%	60 min	1.69%	B
February 2026 (this page)	23,046	82.4%	69 min	0.88%	B+
March 2026	27,089	76.8%	72 min	1.50%	B
April 2026	25,345	82.5%	56 min	0.27%	B+
May 2026	27,406	76.4%	58 min	0.28%	B+
June 2026	28,634	67.1%	64 min	0.41%	C+

Departure window

The best time of day to leave DEN in February

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 18 points, against 10 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,662 flights94.5%
8am–11am4,677 flights90.1%
11am–2pm5,477 flights80.4%
2pm–5pm3,466 flights76.7%
5pm–8pm4,966 flights78.2%
8pm–5am2,798 flights80.5%

Scale runs 70% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 94.5% of the time, against 76.7% for the afternoon window. That is 18 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 5,477 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 87.5% on time and Tuesday the weakest at 72.4%. 15 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at DEN in February

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 88.3% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 78.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 6,368 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at DEN in February 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
United Airlines	7,820	84.4%	71 min	0.54%	B+
Southwest Airlines	6,368	78.8%	54 min	0.80%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	5,614	82.2%	88 min	1.25%	B
Frontier Airlines	1,538	85.1%	56 min	0.20%	A+
Delta Air Lines	734	88.3%	87 min	2.18%	A
American Airlines	659	82.7%	99 min	1.67%	B
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	168	86.3%	59 min	0.00%	A+
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	88	66.7%	82 min	11.36%	C−
Envoy Airthin sample	52	84.6%	30 min	0.00%	B+

Delta leads Southwest by 10 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of DEN in February

Routes from DEN in February 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
DEN to PHX · Phoenix	722	82.9%	63 min	0.42%	B+
DEN to SLC · Salt Lake City	616	84.1%	66 min	0.81%	B+
DEN to LAS · Las Vegas	567	84.2%	57 min	0.53%	B+
DEN to LAX · Los Angeles	550	81.6%	64 min	0.18%	B+
DEN to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	460	81.0%	64 min	0.65%	B+
DEN to SAN · San Diego	460	84.1%	57 min	0.00%	B+
DEN to ORD · Chicago	432	79.1%	93 min	0.23%	B+
DEN to AUS · Austin	421	86.0%	73 min	0.00%	A+
DEN to ATL · Atlanta	412	85.4%	52 min	0.24%	A+
DEN to SEA · Seattle	401	83.3%	49 min	0.00%	B+
DEN to SFO · San Francisco	399	74.6%	64 min	0.00%	C+
DEN to MSP · Minneapolis	377	86.2%	58 min	0.00%	A+
DEN to MCO · Orlando	375	84.0%	53 min	0.00%	B+
DEN to IAH · Houstonthin sample	347	85.8%	55 min	0.00%	A+
DEN to COS · Colorado Springsthin sample	346	82.9%	67 min	0.29%	B+
DEN to LGA · New Yorkthin sample	338	81.5%	76 min	6.80%	B−
DEN to MCI · Kansas Citythin sample	293	81.5%	59 min	0.34%	B+
DEN to BOS · Bostonthin sample	267	76.1%	67 min	7.49%	B−
DEN to SMF · Sacramentothin sample	259	81.8%	67 min	0.39%	B+
DEN to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	257	84.4%	85 min	0.00%	B+
DEN to SNA · Santa Anathin sample	257	87.5%	63 min	0.39%	A+
DEN to ASE · Aspenthin sample	254	73.7%	133 min	11.42%	C−
DEN to STL · St. Louisthin sample	253	87.7%	71 min	0.40%	A+
DEN to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	252	86.5%	60 min	0.00%	A+
DEN to TUS · Tucsonthin sample	246	80.1%	55 min	0.00%	B+

Delay causes

What held DEN up in February

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 278,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.

Late-arriving aircraft
46%
Carrier
35%
National Airspace System
16%
Extreme weather
3%
Security
0%

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 278,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 15 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 278,310 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.88%, below the national 2.25% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.

6.4% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 6.5%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from DEN in February

For a February trip through DEN: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 82.4% on time with 0.88% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.

Denver International (DEN), the whole year
DEN in July63.0%
DEN in August70.1%
DEN in September79.4%
DEN in October80.8%
DEN in November84.7%
DEN in December74.3%
DEN in January82.3%
DEN in March76.8%
DEN in April82.5%
DEN in May76.4%
DEN in June67.1%

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures