Carrier route record

OOMSN→DEN

SkyWest Airlines · Madison to Denver

Flights: 203
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Share of route: 19%
Carriers: 3

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

SkyWest on MSN 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, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 203 flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.

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

On time

74.1%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 201 completed flights

Avg delay

87 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.49%

National rate is 1.81%

Whole route

80.1%

Every carrier on MSN to DEN, 1,074 flights

These figures cover 203 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.

Carrier by carrier

SkyWest against every carrier on MSN to DEN

SkyWest flew 203 of the 1,074 flights on MSN to DEN, about 19% of it. Its 74.1% on time is 6 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 80.1%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 84.2% to Frontier at 67.4%. 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.

On-time performance by carrier on MSN to DEN
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
United Airlines	730	84.2%	69 min	0.68%	B+
SkyWest Airlines (this page)thin sample	203	74.1%	87 min	0.49%	C+
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	141	67.4%	117 min	1.42%	C

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 29 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–8am39 flights97.4%
8am–11am—
11am–2pm—
2pm–5pm1 flights—
5pm–8pm163 flights68.3%
8pm–5am—

Scale runs 60% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 97.4% of the time, against 68.3% for the evening window. That is 29 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 163 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

SkyWest on MSN to DEN through the year

Jul–Sep 202569 flights54.4%
Oct–Dec 202544 flights86.4%
Apr–Jun 202690 flights83.1%

Scale runs 45% 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 74.1% on time across 203 flights.

SkyWest on MSN to DEN did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Oct–Dec 2025 at 86.4% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2025 at 54.4%, a swing of 32 points on roughly 68 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 80.6% on time and Monday the weakest at 63.2%. 17 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 4,515 reported delay minutes.

Carrier
37%
National Airspace System
36%
Late-arriving aircraft
22%
Extreme weather
5%

The largest share of delay minutes, 37%, 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 1,653 of the 4,515 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 4,515 reported delay minutes.

36% 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 1,638 minutes out of 4,515, against a national NAS share of 21%.

Cancellations are rare at 0.49%, below the national 1.81% 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 costs

8.5% 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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.

The 826 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.

The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 82.4% on time across 206 flights, 8 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 8 points of difference.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 203 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 SkyWest on MSN to DEN

Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 203 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 74.1% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 201 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