OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Denver to Los Angeles

862 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on DEN–LAX arrive on time 79% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate79%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay40 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled0.5%of scheduled flights

based on 7,699 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

  • United Airlinesbest
    On-time85%
    Medianon time
    p9025 min
    Cancel0.0%
    Flights3,059
  • Frontier Airlines
    On-time80%
    Medianon time
    p9040 min
    Cancel0.8%
    Flights731
  • Delta Air Lines
    On-time79%
    Medianon time
    p9050 min
    Cancel1.4%
    Flights717
  • SkyWest Airlines
    On-time79%
    Medianon time
    p9050 min
    Cancel0.8%
    Flights1,260
  • Southwest Airlines
    On-time69%
    Medianon time
    p9050 min
    Cancel0.7%
    Flights1,932

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline42%
  • Weather3%
  • Air traffic (NAS)13%
  • Late aircraft42%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Airline.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline31%
  • Weather46%
  • Air traffic (NAS)23%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Weather. Shares are among 39 cancellations with a reported cause (BTS reports causes from June 2003).

Over time

On-time trend

By season

On-time rate by month

When to fly

Best time to fly DEN → LAX

All airlines · rolling 36 months (2023-06 .. 2026-05).

Best time of day

Mornings are the most reliable time of day to fly this route — 88% on time.

  • Mornings88% on time · p90 15 min · 6,263 flights
  • Middays85% on time · p90 20 min · 6,206 flights
  • Afternoons75% on time · p90 45 min · 2,290 flights
  • Evenings69% on time · p90 65 min · 5,009 flights
  • Overnights64% on time · p90 70 min · 3,227 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 76% to 81% on time.

  • Tuesdays81% on time · p90 35 min · 3,181 flights
  • Wednesdays81% on time · p90 35 min · 3,210 flights
  • Saturdays80% on time · p90 40 min · 3,064 flights
  • Mondays78% on time · p90 40 min · 3,422 flights
  • Thursdays77% on time · p90 40 min · 3,383 flights
  • Sundays77% on time · p90 45 min · 3,298 flights
  • Fridays76% on time · p90 45 min · 3,437 flights

Keep exploring

Related pages

Delay predictorfor this route→DEN airportDenver→LAX airportLos Angeles→United Airlinesairline profile→Southwest Airlinesairline profile→SkyWest Airlinesairline profile→Seasonal delay patternsguide→

Methodology

A flight is on time when it arrives within 15 minutes of schedule — the US DOT / BTS standard. Median and p90(the “1-in-10 bad day”) are read from the full arrival-delay distribution, never averaged across periods.

Figures cover a carrier’s own BTS-coded flights. Cells below ~200 flights are flagged as limited data. All numbers are pre-computed from public BTS On-Time Performance data.