Carrier route record
WNDEN→FAT
Southwest Airlines · Denver to Fresno
- Flights
- 360
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 25%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Southwest Airlines.
Southwest on DEN to FAT sits in the middle of the pack with a C+. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land roughly 40 minutes behind schedule. That rests on 360 flights, with a median arrival right on schedule.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate Southwest on DEN to FAT from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
74.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 359 completed flights
Avg delay
38 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.28%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
80.3%
Every carrier on DEN to FAT, 1,452 flights
These figures cover 360 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. On-time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the same threshold the Department of Transportation uses in its own reports. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the on-time rate and counted separately, which is why the cancellation column matters on its own.
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Carrier by carrier
Southwest against every carrier on DEN to FAT
Southwest flew 360 of the 1,452 flights on DEN to FAT, about 25% of it. Its 74.1% on time is 6 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 80.3%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from SkyWest at 87.8% to United at 70.3%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 748 | 87.8% | 63 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Southwest Airlines (this page)thin sample | 360 | 74.1% | 38 min | 0.28% | C+ |
| United Airlinesthin sample | 344 | 70.3% | 60 min | 0.29% | C+ |
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Departure window
When Southwest runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 27 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am6 flights—
- 8am–11am43 flights90.7%
- 11am–2pm164 flights79.9%
- 2pm–5pm141 flights63.6%
- 5pm–8pm6 flights—
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 90.7% of the time, against 63.6% for the afternoon window. That is 27 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 164 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Southwest on DEN to FAT through the year
June is the worst month at 36.7% on time, 54 points below November, the best at 90.3%. 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. December was the busiest month here, with 33 flights.
Across the week, Monday is the strongest day at 79.2% on time and Sunday the weakest at 67.3%, a spread of 12 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Southwest on DEN to FAT runs when it is late
Most of the lateness is short. 52 of the 93 late arrivals were under half an hour behind, and 13 reached an hour or more.
- 15+ min early57 flights15.9%
- Within 15 min209 flights58.2%
- 15–29 min late52 flights14.5%
- 30–59 min late28 flights7.8%
- 1–2 hours late10 flights2.8%
- 2+ hours late3 flights0.8%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 359 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
33 of 117 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 28% of them. 9 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for Southwest on DEN to FAT
The latest arrival of the period was on 17 February 2026, 3 hours behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as a late-arriving aircraft. The same cause led on four of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 17 February 2026 | 3 hours | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 6 March 2026 | 2 hours 58 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 19 December 2025 | 2 hours 35 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 18 May 2026 | 1 hour 34 minutes | Carrier |
| 6 August 2026 | 1 hour 31 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why Southwest runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 53% of the 3,500 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 53%Late-arriving aircraft
- 40%Carrier
- 7%National Airspace System
53% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 3,500 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 53 to one. The split is drawn from 3,500 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 40%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 1,407 of the 3,500 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.28%, 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 costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.6% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% 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.
The 844 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 81.0% on time across 359 flights, 7 points above this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 7 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 360 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking Southwest on DEN to FAT
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 360 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 74.1% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 359 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- DEN to FAT, every carrier
- Southwest on FAT to DEN, the return leg
- SkyWest Airlines on DEN to FAT87.8%
- United Airlines on DEN to FAT70.3%
- Southwest Airlines network-wide record
- Denver International (DEN) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
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.