Airport month record

DENOCT

Denver International in October 2025

Departures: 27,763
Month: October 2025
National, same month: 79.7%
Carriers: 9

Historical statistics for October 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s October. For today’s conditions at DEN, see live FAA status.

DEN in October lands a B+, about a point better than the national rate of 79.7%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 50 minutes on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 27,763 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 6,403 at 87.1% on time.

SkyWest Airlines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 87.1% on time across 6,403 flights.

On time

80.8%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 27,669 completed departures

Avg delay

52 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.13%

Nationally in October: 0.53%

Whole year

76.3%

DEN across all twelve months

These figures cover 27,763 departures from Denver International in October 2025. 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

October next to DEN's other months

Against DEN's own year, October ran 5 points better than the twelve-month rate of 76.3%, which makes it number five of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for DEN in October, at 0.13% against 0.79% across the year. Either side of it, September ran 79.4% on time and November 84.7%, so this month sits in line with its neighbours.

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 (this page)	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	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 October

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 21 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am2,014 flights93.2%
8am–11am5,715 flights86.8%
11am–2pm6,032 flights83.4%
2pm–5pm4,266 flights78.4%
5pm–8pm6,079 flights72.5%
8pm–5am3,657 flights76.8%

Scale runs 65% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 93.2% of the time, against 72.5% for the evening window. That is 21 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 6,079 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 87.2% on time and Monday the weakest at 70.1%. 17 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at DEN in October

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 87.1% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 71.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 7,711 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at DEN in October 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
United Airlines	9,375	84.1%	49 min	0.10%	B+
Southwest Airlines	7,711	71.0%	44 min	0.12%	C+
SkyWest Airlines	6,403	87.1%	57 min	0.00%	A+
Frontier Airlines	2,106	81.7%	62 min	0.24%	B+
Delta Air Lines	1,024	85.4%	88 min	0.49%	A+
American Airlines	782	80.6%	103 min	0.64%	B+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	221	78.7%	54 min	1.81%	B
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	97	64.9%	66 min	0.00%	D+
Allegiant Airthin sample	42	81.0%	84 min	0.00%	B+

The spread between SkyWest and Southwest is 16 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 16 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of DEN in October

Routes from DEN in October 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
DEN to PHX · Phoenix	802	74.9%	61 min	0.25%	C+
DEN to LAX · Los Angeles	684	84.3%	59 min	0.00%	B+
DEN to SLC · Salt Lake City	663	81.8%	56 min	0.00%	B+
DEN to LAS · Las Vegas	653	74.4%	54 min	0.00%	C+
DEN to ORD · Chicago	616	76.5%	62 min	0.32%	B+
DEN to SEA · Seattle	552	79.7%	58 min	0.72%	B+
DEN to SAN · San Diego	532	73.4%	43 min	0.19%	C+
DEN to MSP · Minneapolis	529	83.9%	44 min	0.19%	B+
DEN to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	522	80.4%	87 min	0.96%	B+
DEN to ATL · Atlanta	474	83.9%	43 min	0.00%	B+
DEN to SFO · San Francisco	460	71.0%	47 min	0.22%	C+
DEN to COS · Colorado Springs	450	81.6%	48 min	0.00%	B+
DEN to AUS · Austin	431	77.4%	46 min	0.00%	B+
DEN to LGA · New York	400	70.5%	63 min	2.00%	C
DEN to IAH · Houston	398	86.1%	42 min	0.25%	A+
DEN to PDX · Portland	393	76.8%	45 min	0.00%	B+
DEN to MCI · Kansas City	393	81.7%	45 min	0.00%	B+
DEN to MCO · Orlando	370	80.1%	47 min	0.54%	B+
DEN to BOS · Bostonthin sample	343	59.6%	78 min	0.00%	D+
DEN to SMF · Sacramentothin sample	336	77.7%	37 min	0.00%	B+
DEN to STL · St. Louisthin sample	333	86.8%	35 min	0.00%	A+
DEN to SNA · Santa Anathin sample	333	81.6%	35 min	0.30%	B+
DEN to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	323	77.4%	53 min	0.00%	B+
DEN to EWR · Newarkthin sample	300	77.2%	67 min	0.33%	B+
DEN to ABQ · Albuquerquethin sample	297	83.2%	42 min	0.00%	B+

Delay causes

What held DEN up in October

Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 275,000 reported delay minutes.

Late-arriving aircraft
39%
Carrier
37%
National Airspace System
22%
Extreme weather
2%
Security
0%

39% 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 275,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 20 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 275,088 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.13%, below the national 0.53% 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.

Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.6% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 6.3% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.

What to do with this

Flying from DEN in October

For a October trip through DEN: expect 80.8% on time and 0.13% cancelled, going by October 2025. The 5am–8am window was the strongest part of the day.

Denver International (DEN), the whole year
DEN in July63.0%
DEN in August70.1%
DEN in September79.4%
DEN in November84.7%
DEN in December74.3%
DEN in January82.3%
DEN in February82.4%
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