Route reliability record
GJT→DEN
Grand Junction to Denver
- Flights
- 2,282
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 212 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route lands a B, 2 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. 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 rests on 2,282 GJT to DEN flights, of which United Airlines flew 732 at 85.0% on time.
Best time to fly GJT to DEN: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.4% of the time and Wednesday flights 81.9%, against 79.6% 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
79.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,247 completed flights
Avg delay
75 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.36%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
85.0% on time across 732 flights
These figures cover 2,282 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 9 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 GJT to DEN
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 85.0% of the time; SkyWest Airlines manages 77.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,550 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 732 | 85.0% | 61 min | 0.41% | A+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,550 | 77.0% | 80 min | 1.81% | B |
United leads SkyWest by 8 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Flight by flight
Flights on GJT to DEN
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 Grand Junction to Denver
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. 2 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. GJT → DENGrand Junction to Denver | United Airlines | 84.7% | 85.0% | 0.41% | 5am–8am, Wed | UA 1877 07:00 |
| 2. MTJ → DENMontrose to Denver | Southwest Airlines | 81.3% | 81.5% | 0.23% | 11am–2pm, Sun | — |
| 3. MTJ → DENMontrose to Denver | United Airlines | 80.1% | 80.5% | 0.45% | 5am–8am, Tue | UA 352 13:30 |
| 4. GJT → DENGrand Junction to Denver | SkyWest Airlines | 75.6% | 77.0% | 1.81% | 8am–11am, Fri | OO 4800 05:30 |
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 25 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am684 flights86.8%
- 8am–11am143 flights89.4%
- 11am–2pm727 flights84.1%
- 2pm–5pm363 flights67.5%
- 5pm–8pm363 flights64.3%
- 8pm–5am2 flights—
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 64.3% on time, against 89.4% 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 727 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter GJT to DEN 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 GJT to DEN, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 89.4% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 64.3%, a wide gap of 25.1 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am86.8%
- 8–11am89.4%
- 11am–2pm84.1%
- 2–5pm67.5%
- 5–8pm64.3%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 16 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 73.9% on time, 16 points below November, the best at 90.2%. 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. May was the busiest month here, with 214 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 81.9% on time and Saturday the weakest at 76.7%, a spread of 5 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
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 34,000 reported delay minutes.
- 36%Carrier
- 28%National Airspace System
- 28%Late-arriving aircraft
- 8%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 36%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 12,000 of the 34,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 34,468 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.36% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.18%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.3% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 212 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 79.9% on time across 2,282 flights, within half 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 2,282 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 DEN 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 90.2% on time and August 73.9%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 2,247 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
GJT to DEN questions
How often is GJT to DEN 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 20.4% of the 2,282 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on GJT to DEN?
United Airlines leads at 85.0% on time across 732 flights. SkyWest Airlines is at the other end on 77.0%, a gap of 8 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 GJT to DEN?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 89.4% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 64.3%, 25 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 GJT to DEN?
August is the weakest month at 73.9% on time, compared with 90.2% in November. Across the year that is 16 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
- DEN to GJT — the return legseparate record
- Denver International (DEN) delay statistics
- United Airlines on GJT to DEN85.0%
- SkyWest Airlines on GJT to DEN77.0%
- GJT to DFW, a related route83.4%
- PHX to DEN, a related route76.7%
- GJT to PHX, a related route82.7%
- United Airlines on-time record85.0%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record77.0%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
Direction matters. GJT to DEN and DEN to GJT 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.