Route reliability record
DEN→BZN
Denver to Bozeman
- Flights
- 2,703
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 524 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B+, about a point better than the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 55 minutes on average. That rests on 2,703 DEN to BZN flights, of which United Airlines flew 1,210 at 83.1% on time.
Best time to fly DEN to BZN: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.9% of the time and Tuesday flights 81.6%, against 78.1% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
78.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,690 completed flights
Avg delay
54 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.33%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
83.1% on time across 1,210 flights
These figures cover 2,703 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 3 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on DEN to BZN
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 83.1% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 70.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,174 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 319 | 86.9% | 53 min | 0.94% | A+ |
| United Airlines | 1,210 | 83.1% | 58 min | 0.17% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,174 | 70.5% | 51 min | 0.34% | C+ |
The spread between United and Southwest is 13 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 13 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on DEN to BZN
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Denver to Bozeman
Every airline on this route, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time, with its best departure time and most punctual flight number. No nearby airport pair beat these.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. DEN → BZNDenver to Bozeman | United Airlines | 83.0% | 83.1% | 0.17% | 8am–11am, Mon | UA 741 11:45 |
| 2. DEN → BZNDenver to Bozeman | Southwest Airlines | 70.3% | 70.5% | 0.34% | 8am–11am, Tue | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 30 points, against 13 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am211 flights91.9%
- 8am–11am517 flights91.0%
- 11am–2pm957 flights80.7%
- 2pm–5pm259 flights64.1%
- 5pm–8pm348 flights72.9%
- 8pm–5am411 flights61.7%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 61.7% on time, against 91.9% 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 957 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DEN to BZN by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On DEN to BZN, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.9% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 61.7%, a wide gap of 30.2 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.9%
- 8–11am91.0%
- 11am–2pm80.7%
- 2–5pm64.1%
- 5–8pm72.9%
- 8pm–5am61.7%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 23 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
August is the worst month at 65.7% on time, 23 points below October, the best at 88.7%. 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 265 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 81.6% on time and Friday the weakest at 74.6%, a spread of 7 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 31,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 48%Late-arriving aircraft
- 35%Carrier
- 13%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
48% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 31,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 13 to one. The split is drawn from 31,206 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 35%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 11,000 of the 31,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.33%, below the national 1.89% 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.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
6.4% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last roughly 55 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 524 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
The return leg runs 77.5% on time across 2,704 flights, within half a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 2,703 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in BZN after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. October runs 88.7% on time and August 65.7%, a swing of 23 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 2,690 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DEN to BZN questions
How often is DEN to BZN delayed?
Roughly one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.9% of the 2,703 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by roughly 55 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on DEN to BZN?
United Airlines leads at 83.1% on time across 1,210 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 70.5%, a gap of 13 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 DEN to BZN?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.9% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 61.7%, 30 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 August delays on DEN to BZN?
August is the weakest month at 65.7% on time, compared with 88.7% in October. Across the year that is 23 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
- BZN to DEN — the return legseparate record
- Denver International (DEN) delay statistics
- SkyWest Airlines on DEN to BZN86.9%
- United Airlines on DEN to BZN83.1%
- Southwest Airlines on DEN to BZN70.5%
- DEN to PHX, a related route75.6%
- SEA to BZN, a related route81.6%
- DEN to SLC, a related route78.2%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record86.9%
- United Airlines on-time record83.1%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record70.5%
- Flying to ski country: which routes into the mountains run on time
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. DEN to BZN and BZN to DEN are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.