Carrier route record

OODEN→RAP

SkyWest Airlines · Denver to Rapid City

Flights: 2,125
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Share of route: 74%
Carriers: 2

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with SkyWest Airlines.

SkyWest on DEN to RAP lands a B, about a point better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 2,125 flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate SkyWest on DEN to RAP from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.

On time

78.6%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,086 completed flights

Avg delay

70 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.41%

National rate is 1.81%

Whole route

77.9%

Every carrier on DEN to RAP, 2,887 flights

These figures cover 2,125 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 6 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.

Carrier by carrier

SkyWest against every carrier on DEN to RAP

SkyWest flew 2,125 of the 2,887 flights on DEN to RAP, most of the route. Its 78.6% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 77.9%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from SkyWest at 78.6% to United at 76.2%.

Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.

On-time performance by carrier on DEN to RAP
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SkyWest Airlines (this page)	2,125	78.6%	70 min	1.41%	B
United Airlines	762	76.2%	64 min	0.39%	B+

Flight by flight

SkyWest flight numbers on DEN to RAP

Departure window

When SkyWest runs best on this route

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 24 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am119 flights89.8%
8am–11am459 flights83.7%
11am–2pm298 flights82.3%
2pm–5pm622 flights76.0%
5pm–8pm356 flights65.6%
8pm–5am271 flights83.6%

Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.8% of the time, against 65.6% for the evening window. That is 24 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 622 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

SkyWest on DEN to RAP through the year

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.October best, July worst

July is the worst month at 68.1% on time, 23 points below October, the best at 90.9%. 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 214 flights.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 82.7% on time and Saturday the weakest at 74.6%. 8 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Delay causes

Why SkyWest runs late on this route

Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 31,000 reported delay minutes.

Carrier
42%
Late-arriving aircraft
34%
National Airspace System
17%
Extreme weather
7%

The largest share of delay minutes, 42%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 13,000 of the 31,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 31,259 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 89.8% on time here.

Cancellations sit at 1.41% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.42%.

Connections and stage length

What a delay here costs

7.9% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

At 301 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 77.8% on time across 2,126 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 2,125 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 SkyWest on DEN to RAP

Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. October runs 90.9% on time and July 68.1%, a swing of 23 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 2,086 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures