Route reliability record
DEN→ICT
Denver to Wichita
- Flights
- 2,231
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 420 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B+, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 2,231 DEN to ICT flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 1,300 at 85.3% on time.
Best time to fly DEN to ICT: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.2% of the time and Wednesday flights 80.2%, against 77.7% for the route overall.
SkyWest Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 85.3% on time across 1,300 flights.
Key figures
On time
77.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,211 completed flights
Avg delay
63 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.67%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
SkyWest
85.3% on time across 1,300 flights
These figures cover 2,231 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 5 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 ICT
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 85.3% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 61.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 559 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,300 | 85.3% | 65 min | 0.69% | A+ |
| United Airlines | 372 | 75.6% | 65 min | 0.54% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 559 | 61.5% | 60 min | 0.72% | D+ |
The spread between SkyWest and Southwest is 24 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 24 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on DEN to ICT
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 Wichita
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 → ICTDenver to Wichita | SkyWest Airlines | 84.7% | 85.3% | 0.69% | 5am–8am, Fri | OO 5497 09:35 |
| 2. DEN → ICTDenver to Wichita | United Airlines | 75.2% | 75.6% | 0.54% | 5pm–8pm, Mon | — |
| 3. DEN → ICTDenver to Wichita | Southwest Airlines | 61.1% | 61.5% | 0.72% | 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 23 points, against 24 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am133 flights90.2%
- 8am–11am418 flights88.7%
- 11am–2pm198 flights78.1%
- 2pm–5pm438 flights83.7%
- 5pm–8pm544 flights67.2%
- 8pm–5am500 flights71.4%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.2% of the time, against 67.2% for the evening window. That is 23 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 544 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DEN to ICT 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 ICT, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.2% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 67.2%, a wide gap of 23.0 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.2%
- 8–11am88.7%
- 11am–2pm78.1%
- 2–5pm83.7%
- 5–8pm67.2%
- 8pm–5am71.4%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 18 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 70.0% on time, 18 points below January, the best at 88.1%. 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. August was the busiest month here, with 234 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 80.2% on time and Monday the weakest at 75.2%, a spread of 5 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 31,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 47%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 13%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
47% 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 12 to one. The split is drawn from 30,860 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 are rare at 0.67%, 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 420 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 78.7% on time across 2,227 flights, within about 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 2,231 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 ICT 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. January runs 88.1% on time and July 70.0%, a swing of 18 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 2,211 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DEN to ICT questions
How often is DEN to ICT delayed?
Roughly 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 22.3% of the 2,231 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 ICT?
SkyWest Airlines leads at 85.3% on time across 1,300 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 61.5%, a gap of 24 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 ICT?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.2% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 67.2%, 23 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 ICT?
July is the weakest month at 70.0% on time, compared with 88.1% in January. Across the year that is 18 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
- ICT to DEN — the return legseparate record
- Denver International (DEN) delay statistics
- SkyWest Airlines on DEN to ICT85.3%
- United Airlines on DEN to ICT75.6%
- Southwest Airlines on DEN to ICT61.5%
- DEN to PHX, a related route75.6%
- DFW to ICT, a related route76.5%
- DEN to SLC, a related route78.2%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record85.3%
- United Airlines on-time record75.6%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record61.5%
- 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 ICT and ICT 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.