Denver International in December 2023

81.1%departed on time

BTS: A flight is counted as on time if it arrived less than 15 minutes after its scheduled time. Only carriers with at least 0.5 percent of domestic scheduled passenger revenue report.

In December 2023, reporting carriers scheduled 25,054 domestic departures from Denver International (DEN). 81.1% left less than 15 minutes late and 81.3% reached their destination on time; 0.4% were cancelled.

Nationally that month, 83.1% of flights departed on time and 83.8% arrived on time, so DEN departures were 2.0 points below the national departure figure.

Flights arriving at DEN that month were on time 86.8% of the time (25,057 scheduled arrivals).

Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category that month, air carrier 37%, late-arriving aircraft 36% and national aviation system 19%.

On time 81.3%
Arrived 15+ minutes late 18.0%
Cancelled 0.4%
Diverted 0.3%

Every scheduled departure from DEN in December 2023, judged by arrival at the destination.

December 2023 against a year earlier, the airport's year and the nation

Measure	Dec 2023	Year earlier	DEN, 12 months to Jul 2026	All reported flights, Dec 2023
Departed on time	81.1%	—	75.7%	83.1%
Arrived on time	81.3%	—	76.1%	83.8%
Cancelled	0.4%	—	0.7%	0.4%
Average departure delay (late minutes only)	11.1 min	—	16.5 min	11.6 min
Scheduled departures a day	835	—	875	19,013
Scheduled departures	25,054	—	319,208	570,394

Airlines that month

Reporting carrier	Flights	Share	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
WN Southwest Airlines	8,937	36%	76.9%	4.1 min	0.4%
UA United Airlines	8,032	32%	84.6%	0.5 min	0.1%
OO SkyWest Airlines	4,112	16%	83.3%	3.5 min	1.2%
F9 Frontier Airlines	1,793	7%	80.8%	1.3 min	0.1%
DL Delta Air Lines	1,035	4%	92.3%	-6.4 min	0.0%
AA American Airlines	707	3%	78.5%	7.7 min	0.1%
AS Alaska Airlines	164	1%	86.0%	-6.1 min	0.6%
NK Spirit Airlines	124	0%	67.7%	19.3 min	0.0%
B6 JetBlue Airways	112	0%	68.8%	14.0 min	0.9%
G4 Allegiant Air	38	0%	65.8%	8.8 min	0.0%

Busiest routes that month

Route	Cities	Flights	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
DEN–PHX	Denver to Phoenix	802	81.4%	2.0 min	0.1%
DEN–LAS	Denver to Las Vegas	737	82.5%	-1.8 min	0.3%
DEN–SLC	Denver to Salt Lake City	651	84.6%	-2.4 min	0.2%
DEN–LAX	Denver to Los Angeles	627	88.7%	-4.2 min	0.0%
DEN–ATL	Denver to Atlanta	535	83.6%	-0.4 min	0.0%
DEN–SEA	Denver to Seattle	532	86.1%	-6.3 min	0.2%
DEN–MSP	Denver to Minneapolis	516	84.3%	0.8 min	0.0%
DEN–ORD	Denver to Chicago	512	82.6%	2.4 min	0.0%
DEN–SFO	Denver to San Francisco	473	75.9%	2.5 min	0.0%
DEN–DFW	Denver to Dallas/Fort Worth	467	80.5%	7.6 min	0.0%
DEN–SAN	Denver to San Diego	448	90.0%	-5.9 min	0.0%
DEN–LGA	Denver to New York	426	76.8%	7.2 min	0.5%

By scheduled departure hour

On-time share:under 62%6270768288% and over

Share of departures that left less than 15 minutes late, by scheduled hour (local time), December 2023.

Delay causes

BTS cause category	Share of delay minutes	National, Dec 2023	Minutes
Air carrier	36.7%	37.1%	84,972
Late-arriving aircraft	36.0%	38.8%	83,314
National Aviation System	19.3%	17.6%	44,591
Extreme weather	7.9%	6.2%	18,264
Security	0.1%	0.3%	321

231,462 delay minutes on 4,514 flights that arrived 15 or more minutes late and carried a cause report. Carriers assign the categories; see what each category means.

Questions and answers

How many flights left DEN on time in December 2023?

81.1% of 25,054 scheduled domestic departures left less than 15 minutes late, and 81.3% reached their destination on time. The national figures that month were 83.1% and 83.8%.

How does that compare with a year earlier?

December 2022 is outside the 36 months on file, or the airport had too few reported flights that month.

Provenance

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance, file for December 2023; public domain. Domestic scheduled flights by reporting carriers, totals and averages only. The site's data runs through July 2026. Full record for DEN · methodology · corrections.