Route reliability record
DEN→FLL
Denver to Fort Lauderdale
- Flights
- 1,578
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,703 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B+, level with the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 1,578 DEN to FLL flights, of which United Airlines flew 1,173 at 81.0% on time.
Best time to fly DEN to FLL: a 8pm–5am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 81.9% of the time and Tuesday flights 82.5%, against 76.6% 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
76.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,567 completed flights
Avg delay
59 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.38%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
81.0% on time across 1,173 flights
These figures cover 1,578 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 FLL
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 81.0% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 63.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 383 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 1,173 | 81.0% | 58 min | 0.26% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 383 | 63.9% | 59 min | 0.52% | D+ |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 22 | 61.9% | 98 min | 4.55% | D− |
The spread between United and Southwest is 17 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 17 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on DEN to FLL
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 Fort Lauderdale
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 2 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. DEN → FLLDenver to Fort Lauderdale | United Airlines | 80.8% | 81.0% | 0.26% | 11am–2pm, Tue | UA 2188 09:47 |
| 2. DEN → MIADenver to Miami | American Airlines | 77.0% | 77.8% | 1.01% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 3. DEN → MIADenver to Miami | United Airlines | 76.3% | 76.3% | 0.00% | 2pm–5pm, Tue | — |
| 4. DEN → FLLDenver to Fort Lauderdale | Southwest Airlines | 63.6% | 63.9% | 0.52% | 8am–11am, Mon | — |
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 14 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am20 flights—
- 8am–11am644 flights80.6%
- 11am–2pm146 flights67.6%
- 2pm–5pm286 flights70.6%
- 5pm–8pm399 flights75.9%
- 8pm–5am83 flights81.9%
Scale runs 60% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 67.6% on time against 81.9% for 8pm–5am. That shape usually means a departure bank rather than an accumulating delay, so the recovery later in the afternoon is real rather than noise. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 644 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DEN to FLL 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 FLL, the best departure window is 8pm–5am at 81.9% on time and the worst is 11am–2pm at 67.6%, a wide gap of 14.3 points. All US flights leaving 8pm–5am ran 70.1%.
- 5–8am—
- 8–11am80.6%
- 11am–2pm67.6%
- 2–5pm70.6%
- 5–8pm75.9%
- 8pm–5am81.9%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 42 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.
July is the worst month at 48.0% on time, 42 points below November, the best at 89.7%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 202 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 82.5% on time and Friday the weakest at 72.2%, a spread of 10 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 44% of the 22,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 22%National Airspace System
- 0%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 22,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 44 to one. The split is drawn from 21,632 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.38%, 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
7.7% 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 1,703 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 83.0% on time across 1,579 flights, 6 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 6 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,578 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 FLL 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. November runs 89.7% on time and July 48.0%, a swing of 42 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 1,567 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DEN to FLL questions
How often is DEN to FLL delayed?
About 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 23.4% of the 1,578 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on DEN to FLL?
United Airlines leads at 81.0% on time across 1,173 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 63.9%, 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 DEN to FLL?
The 8pm–5am departure window is the strongest at 81.9% on time. The 11am–2pm window is the weakest at 67.6%, 14 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 July delays on DEN to FLL?
July is the weakest month at 48.0% on time, compared with 89.7% in November. Across the year that is 42 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
- FLL to DEN — the return legseparate record
- Denver International (DEN) delay statistics
- Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL) delay statistics
- United Airlines on DEN to FLL81.0%
- Southwest Airlines on DEN to FLL63.9%
- DEN to PHX, a related route75.6%
- ATL to FLL, a related route70.7%
- DEN to SLC, a related route78.2%
- United Airlines on-time record81.0%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record63.9%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record61.9%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
Direction matters. DEN to FLL and FLL 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.