Carrier route record
UAFSD→DEN
United Airlines · Sioux Falls to Denver
- Flights
- 366
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 20%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with United Airlines.
United on FSD to DEN sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 366 flights, with a median arrival 1 minute late.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate United on FSD to DEN from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
74.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 358 completed flights
Avg delay
61 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.91%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
80.2%
Every carrier on FSD to DEN, 1,818 flights
These figures cover 366 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. On-time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the same threshold the Department of Transportation uses in its own reports. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the on-time rate and counted separately, which is why the cancellation column matters on its own.
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Carrier by carrier
United against every carrier on FSD to DEN
United flew 366 of the 1,818 flights on FSD to DEN, about 20% of it. Its 74.3% on time is 6 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 80.2%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from SkyWest at 82.7% to Frontier at 71.2%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
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.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,313 | 82.7% | 96 min | 1.37% | B |
| United Airlines (this page) | 366 | 74.3% | 61 min | 1.91% | C |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 139 | 71.2% | 108 min | 0.00% | C+ |
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Departure window
When United runs best on this route
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 366 flights.
There are not enough flights in each departure window to split United's FSD to DEN record by time of day without the percentages moving on noise. The headline rate of 74.3% is the reliable figure here.
Across the year
United on FSD to DEN through the year
- Jul–Sep 202530 flights—
- Oct–Dec 202591 flights61.1%
- Jan–Mar 202691 flights77.3%
- Apr–Jun 202692 flights82.6%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights78.0%
Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 74.3% on time across 366 flights.
United on FSD to DEN did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 82.6% on time and its weakest Oct–Dec 2025 at 61.1%, a swing of 21 points on roughly 92 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
Across the week, Sunday is the strongest day at 82.4% on time and Saturday the weakest at 70.8%, a spread of 12 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late United on FSD to DEN runs when it is late
The 92 late arrivals split 37 under half an hour, 30 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 25 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early76 flights21.2%
- Within 15 min190 flights53.1%
- 15–29 min late37 flights10.3%
- 30–59 min late30 flights8.4%
- 1–2 hours late13 flights3.6%
- 2+ hours late12 flights3.4%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 358 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 56 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 5 made it up before arrival. In the other direction, 41 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 DEN.
The worst days
Worst days for United on FSD to DEN
The latest arrival of the period was on 23 November 2025, 11 hours 34 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as a late-arriving aircraft. Three of the five worst days fell in December 2025.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 23 November 2025 | 11 hours 34 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 28 December 2025 | 4 hours 46 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 9 December 2025 | 3 hours 3 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 25 May 2026 | 3 hours 3 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 5 December 2025 | 2 hours 32 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why United runs late on this route
Carrier accounts for 44% of the 5,651 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 44%Carrier
- 29%National Airspace System
- 15%Late-arriving aircraft
- 11%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 44%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 2,494 of the 5,651 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 5,651 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.91% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.27%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
7.0% 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 483 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 8am–11am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 75.9% on time across 365 flights, within 2 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 366 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking United on FSD to DEN
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 366 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 74.3% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 358 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- FSD to DEN, every carrier
- United on DEN to FSD, the return leg
- SkyWest Airlines on FSD to DEN82.7%
- Frontier Airlines on FSD to DEN71.2%
- United Airlines network-wide record
- Denver International (DEN) delay statistics
- Late aircraft, weather, or the airline: what actually causes US flight delays
- How to read this site: grades, sample sizes, and honest caveats
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.