Route reliability record
DEN→JFK
Denver to New York
- Flights
- 1,531
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,626 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.7% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about four flights in five arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 1,531 DEN to JFK flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 937 at 87.7% on time.
Best time to fly DEN to JFK: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.8% of the time and Tuesday flights 87.4%, against 80.6% 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
80.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,466 completed flights
Avg delay
94 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.66%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
87.7% on time across 937 flights
These figures cover 1,531 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on DEN to JFK
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 87.7% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 67.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 545 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 937 | 87.7% | 77 min | 2.45% | A |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 49 | 85.7% | 66 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 545 | 67.3% | 106 min | 6.06% | C− |
JetBlue Airways cancels 6.1% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Flight by flight
Flights on DEN to JFK
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 New York
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. 3 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. DEN → JFKDenver to New York | Delta Air Lines | 85.6% | 87.7% | 2.45% | 8pm–5am, Fri | DL 336 06:40 |
| 2. DEN → EWRDenver to Newark | United Airlines | 77.6% | 78.8% | 1.53% | 5am–8am, Tue | UA 2345 06:00 |
| 3. DEN → LGADenver to New York | Delta Air Lines | 75.8% | 79.7% | 4.84% | 5am–8am, Sat | DL 398 07:10 |
| 4. DEN → LGADenver to New York | United Airlines | 72.2% | 73.5% | 1.78% | 8am–11am, Sat | UA 1442 08:15 |
| 5. DEN → JFKDenver to New York | JetBlue Airways | 63.2% | 67.3% | 6.06% | 11am–2pm, Tue | B6 98 23:59 |
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 33 points, against 20 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am379 flights90.8%
- 8am–11am59 flights80.4%
- 11am–2pm528 flights77.9%
- 2pm–5pm101 flights57.6%
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am464 flights79.4%
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.8% of the time, against 57.6% for the afternoon window. That is 33 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 528 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DEN to JFK 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 JFK, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.8% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 57.6%, a wide gap of 33.2 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.8%
- 8–11am80.4%
- 11am–2pm77.9%
- 2–5pm57.6%
- 5–8pm—
- 8pm–5am79.4%
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 35 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 55.7% on time, 35 points below April, the best at 90.7%. 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. December was the busiest month here, with 157 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 87.4% on time and Monday the weakest at 74.9%, a spread of 13 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 44% of the 27,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 44%Carrier
- 34%Late-arriving aircraft
- 21%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 44%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 12,000 of the 27,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 26,649 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 90.8% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.66%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 25 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
8.3% 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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 1,626 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 71.4% on time across 1,531 flights, 9 points below 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 9 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,531 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 JFK after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.66% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 1,466 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DEN to JFK questions
How often is DEN to JFK 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 19.4% of the 1,531 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on DEN to JFK?
Delta Air Lines leads at 87.7% on time across 937 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 67.3%, a gap of 20 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 JFK?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.8% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 57.6%, 33 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 JFK?
August is the weakest month at 55.7% on time, compared with 90.7% in April. Across the year that is 35 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
- JFK to DEN — the return legseparate record
- Denver International (DEN) delay statistics
- John F. Kennedy International (JFK) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on DEN to JFK87.7%
- JetBlue Airways on DEN to JFK67.3%
- DEN to PHX, a related route75.6%
- LAX to JFK, a related route77.5%
- DEN to SLC, a related route78.2%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record87.7%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record85.7%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record67.3%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
Direction matters. DEN to JFK and JFK 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.