Carrier route record
UADEN→LGA
United Airlines · Denver to New York
- Flights
- 2,021
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 43%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with United Airlines.
United on DEN to LGA sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 2,021 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Delta Air Lines, flew 1,033 at 79.7% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate United on DEN to LGA from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
73.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,956 completed flights
Avg delay
74 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.78%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
71.3%
Every carrier on DEN to LGA, 4,664 flights
These figures cover 2,021 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
United against every carrier on DEN to LGA
United flew 2,021 of the 4,664 flights on DEN to LGA, about 43% of it. Its 73.5% on time is 2 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 71.3%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Delta at 79.7% to Southwest at 63.0%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 79.7% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 63.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,517 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,033 | 79.7% | 83 min | 4.84% | B− |
| United Airlines (this page) | 2,021 | 73.5% | 74 min | 1.78% | C |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 93 | 65.6% | 93 min | 3.23% | C− |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,517 | 63.0% | 59 min | 3.10% | D− |
Delta Air Lines cancels 4.8% 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
United flight numbers on DEN to LGA
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Departure window
When United runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 20 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am710 flights84.9%
- 11am–2pm310 flights70.6%
- 2pm–5pm678 flights66.9%
- 5pm–8pm323 flights64.6%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 64.6% on time, against 84.9% for the 8am–11am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 710 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
United on DEN to LGA through the year
Delays peak in March, when the on-time rate falls to 61.5%. February is the strongest month at 83.3%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 22 points. October was the busiest month here, with 176 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 82.0% on time and Monday the weakest at 66.2%, a spread of 16 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late United on DEN to LGA runs when it is late
United on DEN to LGA often beats the schedule: 562 of 1,956 completed flights, 29%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 519 late arrivals split 128 under half an hour, 172 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 219 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early562 flights28.7%
- Within 15 min875 flights44.7%
- 15–29 min late128 flights6.5%
- 30–59 min late172 flights8.8%
- 1–2 hours late124 flights6.3%
- 2+ hours late95 flights4.9%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 1,956 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
61 of 445 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 14% of them. In the other direction, 135 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at LGA.
The worst days
Worst days for United on DEN to LGA
The latest arrival of the period was on 6 March 2026, 8 hours 36 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as extreme weather. The five worst days are spread across March, July, August and November, with no single month standing out.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 6 March 2026 | 8 hours 36 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 21 July 2026 | 8 hours 24 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 27 August 2026 | 8 hours 24 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 30 March 2026 | 5 hours 35 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 17 November 2025 | 5 hours 34 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why United runs late on this route
National Airspace System accounts for 60% of the 38,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 60%National Airspace System
- 25%Late-arriving aircraft
- 12%Carrier
- 3%Extreme weather
60% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 23,000 minutes out of 38,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 38,241 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.78% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 1.43%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
11.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
At 1,620 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 77.6% on time across 2,021 flights, 4 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 4 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 2,021 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.
What to do with this
Booking United on DEN to LGA
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 83.3% on time and March 61.5%, a swing of 22 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of March before you think about anything else. 1,956 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- DEN to LGA, every carrier
- United on LGA to DEN, the return leg
- Delta Air Lines on DEN to LGA79.7%
- Southwest Airlines on DEN to LGA63.0%
- United Airlines network-wide record
- Denver International (DEN) delay statistics
- LaGuardia (LGA) delay statistics
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- 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.