Flight profile · Frontier Airlines
F9686
Denver (DEN) to Washington (DCA) · scheduled 6:40 AM – 12:09 PM
How F9686 performs
849 operations, 2024-01-04 to 2026-06-29.
F9686 arrived on time 91.7% of the time, against 79.0% for all DEN → DCA flights — this specific departure is 12.7 percentage points better than the route as a whole. Against Frontier Airlines’s own flights on this route it is 14.2 points better.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 849 operations between 2024-01-04 to 2026-06-29
Against the rest of the route
| On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe | Flights | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F9686 | 91.7% | 0.94% | -15 min | 1.7% | 849 |
| Frontier Airlines on DEN → DCA | 77.5% | 1.17% | -8 min | 8.3% | 3,163 |
| All DEN → DCA flights | 79.0% | 0.96% | -7 min | 7.6% | 4,259 |
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · 2024-01-04 to 2026-06-29
By day of week
Does F9686 run worse on particular days?
Sunday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 8.2 percentage points.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · 2024-01-04 to 2026-06-29 · Days with fewer than 120 operations are not scored.
Other routes F9686 has flown
A flight number is a slot in a schedule, and carriers reassign it. These are the other city pairs this number served in the analysis period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| DEN→PIT Denver to Pittsburgh | 2023-07-02 – 2023-11-12 | 54 | — |
Because the same number has served different journeys, the statistics above describe only the route F9686 currently operates. Blending them would produce an average of two different flights.
Why F9686 runs late
Where US DOT attributed the delay minutes on this flight.
crew, maintenance, boarding, fuelling — within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for F9686 on DEN → DCA. A single late flight can carry more than one cause, and only delays of fifteen minutes or more are attributed at all.
Other departures on DEN → DCA
Same airports, same journey — and not the same odds of arriving on time.
| Flight | Airline | On time | Median arrival | Operations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UA1767 | United Airlines | 79.3% | 4 min early | 644 |
| F9688 | Frontier Airlines | 74.8% | 5 min early | 835 |
| F9690 | Frontier Airlines | 62.6% | 1 min late | 850 |
Every departure listed carries at least 600 operations, so the comparison is between figures that mean something. Schedules change; confirm the departure still operates before booking around this.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 849 records of F9686 operating DEN → DCA, published by the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics. A flight counts as delayed when it arrives 15 or more minutes after schedule. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the on-time rate and reported separately. Flight numbers are resolved as carrier plus number plus route, because the same number serves different routes over time.
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