Route reliability record
DEN→TPA
Denver to Tampa
- Flights
- 3,100
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,506 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 3,100 DEN to TPA flights, of which United Airlines flew 1,186 at 82.2% on time.
Best time to fly DEN to TPA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Monday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.5% of the time and Monday flights 79.8%, against 77.2% for the route overall.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 82.2% on time across 1,186 flights.
Key figures
On time
77.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,073 completed flights
Avg delay
64 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.48%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
82.2% on time across 1,186 flights
These figures cover 3,100 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 TPA
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 82.2% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 71.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,293 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 1,186 | 82.2% | 66 min | 0.17% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 621 | 80.5% | 83 min | 0.97% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,293 | 71.0% | 57 min | 0.54% | C+ |
United leads Southwest by 11 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Flight by flight
Flights on DEN to TPA
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 Tampa
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 → TPADenver to Tampa | United Airlines | 82.1% | 82.2% | 0.17% | 8am–11am, Wed | UA 1010 09:40 |
| 2. DEN → TPADenver to Tampa | Frontier Airlines | 79.7% | 80.5% | 0.97% | 5am–8am, Sat | F9 2746 23:59 |
| 3. DEN → TPADenver to Tampa | Southwest Airlines | 70.6% | 71.0% | 0.54% | 5am–8am, Mon | — |
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 27 points, against 11 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am449 flights91.5%
- 8am–11am777 flights84.0%
- 11am–2pm314 flights72.3%
- 2pm–5pm572 flights74.1%
- 5pm–8pm633 flights64.4%
- 8pm–5am355 flights76.4%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 64.4% on time, against 91.5% for the 5am–8am 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 777 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DEN to TPA 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 TPA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.5% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 64.4%, a wide gap of 27.1 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.5%
- 8–11am84.0%
- 11am–2pm72.3%
- 2–5pm74.1%
- 5–8pm64.4%
- 8pm–5am76.4%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 27 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 63.1% on time, 27 points below November, the best at 90.5%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 334 flights.
Across the week, Monday is the strongest day at 79.8% on time and Friday the weakest at 74.9%, a spread of 5 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 42% of the 45,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 42%Late-arriving aircraft
- 41%Carrier
- 16%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
42% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 45,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 40 to one. The split is drawn from 45,010 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 41%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 18,000 of the 45,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.48%, 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
7.5% 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 1,506 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 81.1% on time across 3,089 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 3,100 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 TPA 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 90.5% on time and August 63.1%, a swing of 27 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 3,073 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DEN to TPA questions
How often is DEN to TPA 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 22.8% of the 3,100 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 TPA?
United Airlines leads at 82.2% on time across 1,186 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 71.0%, a gap of 11 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 TPA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.5% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 64.4%, 27 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 TPA?
August is the weakest month at 63.1% on time, compared with 90.5% in November. Across the year that is 27 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
- TPA to DEN — the return legseparate record
- Denver International (DEN) delay statistics
- Tampa International (TPA) delay statistics
- United Airlines on DEN to TPA82.2%
- Frontier Airlines on DEN to TPA80.5%
- Southwest Airlines on DEN to TPA71.0%
- DEN to PHX, a related route75.6%
- ATL to TPA, a related route73.0%
- DEN to SLC, a related route78.2%
- United Airlines on-time record82.2%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record80.5%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record71.0%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. DEN to TPA and TPA 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.