Route reliability record
DEN→GJT
Denver to Grand Junction
- Flights
- 2,282
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 212 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route lands a B, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 2,282 DEN to GJT flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 1,550 at 80.9% on time.
Best time to fly DEN to GJT: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.4% of the time and Tuesday flights 83.8%, against 79.9% 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
79.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,250 completed flights
Avg delay
67 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.31%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
SkyWest
80.9% on time across 1,550 flights
These figures cover 2,282 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 7 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 GJT
The two carriers here are closely matched: 3 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,550 | 80.9% | 70 min | 1.87% | B |
| United Airlines | 732 | 77.8% | 63 min | 0.14% | B+ |
No carrier stands out. SkyWest tops the table at 80.9%, 3 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.
Flight by flight
Flights on DEN to GJT
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 Grand Junction
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 → GJTDenver to Grand Junction | SkyWest Airlines | 79.4% | 80.9% | 1.87% | 5am–8am, Tue | OO 4704 09:35 |
| 2. DEN → GJTDenver to Grand Junction | United Airlines | 77.7% | 77.8% | 0.14% | 11am–2pm, Wed | UA 1714 11:24 |
| 3. DEN → MTJDenver to Montrose | United Airlines | 75.7% | 75.8% | 0.11% | 11am–2pm, Wed | UA 1772 11:20 |
| 4. DEN → MTJDenver to Montrose | Southwest Airlines | 71.8% | 72.0% | 0.23% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
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 20 points, against 3 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am124 flights89.4%
- 8am–11am357 flights87.7%
- 11am–2pm729 flights86.5%
- 2pm–5pm363 flights69.7%
- 5pm–8pm331 flights69.1%
- 8pm–5am378 flights75.7%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.4% of the time, against 69.1% for the evening window. That is 20 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 729 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DEN to GJT 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 GJT, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.4% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 69.1%, a wide gap of 20.3 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.4%
- 8–11am87.7%
- 11am–2pm86.5%
- 2–5pm69.7%
- 5–8pm69.1%
- 8pm–5am75.7%
best all US flightsScale 60% 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 68.1% on time, 23 points below November, the best at 91.4%. 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. May was the busiest month here, with 214 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 83.8% on time and Friday the weakest at 77.2%, a spread of 7 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 44% of the 31,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 14%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 3%Security
44% 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 14 to one. The split is drawn from 30,518 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 36%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 11,000 of the 31,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.31% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.09%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.4% 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 212 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 79.6% on time across 2,282 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 2,282 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 GJT 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 91.4% on time and August 68.1%, a swing of 23 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 2,250 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DEN to GJT questions
How often is DEN to GJT delayed?
About 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 20.1% of the 2,282 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 GJT?
SkyWest Airlines leads at 80.9% on time across 1,550 flights. United Airlines is at the other end on 77.8%, a gap of 3 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 GJT?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.4% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 69.1%, 20 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 GJT?
August is the weakest month at 68.1% on time, compared with 91.4% in November. 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
- GJT to DEN — the return legseparate record
- Denver International (DEN) delay statistics
- SkyWest Airlines on DEN to GJT80.9%
- United Airlines on DEN to GJT77.8%
- DEN to PHX, a related route75.6%
- DFW to GJT, a related route83.0%
- DEN to SLC, a related route78.2%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record80.9%
- United Airlines on-time record77.8%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. DEN to GJT and GJT 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.