Flight profile · United Airlines
UA2272
Minneapolis (MSP) to Denver (DEN) · scheduled 5:00 PM – 6:20 PM
How UA2272 performs
1,026 operations, July 2023 – July 2026.
UA2272 arrived on time 68.3% of the time, against 79.5% for all MSP → DEN flights, so this departure is 11.2 percentage points worse than the route as a whole. Against United Airlines’ own flights on this route it is 12.9 points worse.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 1,026 operations, July 2023 – July 2026 · If UA2272 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
What stands out
How UA2272 compares to other flight numbers, not just to itself.
This flight's worst arrivals run unusually far past its typical one, a bigger gap than 96% of 11,788 comparable flight numbers.
A typical arrival is 2 min early, but the worst tenth run 110 minutes worse than that.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · The one thing about this specific departure that ranks most extreme against every other published flight number, out of everything FlyerIntel checks — shown only when something clears a real statistical bar, not for every flight.
Where UA2272 is right now
A live reading, only if you ask for it. It is not part of the reliability record above.
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Against the rest of the route
| Flight or route | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UA2272 | 68.3% | 0.58% | -2 min | 17.1% | 1,026 |
| United Airlines on MSP → DEN | 81.2% | 0.81% | -9 min | 7.7% | 4,910 |
| All MSP → DEN flights | 79.5% | 0.69% | -7 min | 6.9% | 18,785 |
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026
Why UA2272 runs late
Where US DOT attributed the delay minutes on this flight.
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for UA2272 on MSP → DEN. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
Does a late aircraft delay this flight?
How often the plane that flies UA2272 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
When the aircraft came in 15 or more minutes late, UA2272 pushed back an average of 80 minutes late; when it came in on time or early, an average of 12 minutes late.
Each departure is matched to the flight the same aircraft flew into MSP just before it, using the tail number in the DOT file, 1,005 of 1,020 departures in all. A departure is left out when that flight is unknown, was cancelled or diverted, or the aircraft had sat for more than 12 hours. A flight the airline cancelled never left and is not in the count, and one flown by a substitute aircraft is matched to the aircraft that flew it, not to the one first planned.
Against the network at the same turn length
| Share of departures | Inbound landed 15+ late | Left 15+ late after a late inbound | Left 15+ late after an on-time inbound |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA2272 | 20% | 84% | 16% |
| Network, same turn | 17% | 68% | 9% |
The schedule leaves a normal turn: enough time to clean and board if the aircraft is on time, little to spare if it is not.
The network row is every flight with a scheduled turn of 60 to 89 minutes. How often UA2272’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is higher than the network’s and, once the aircraft was late, how often UA2272 left 15 or more minutes late is higher than the network’s.
More: Which Flight Numbers Pay for a Late Aircraft lists the flight numbers that pass a late aircraft on.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
From pushback to gate
When it leaves MSP late, does that still matter by the time it reaches DEN?
UA2272 pushes back an average of 27.8 minutes late and reaches the gate at DEN an average of 25.1 minutes late. The 2.6 minutes between those two figures are slack the published schedule already carries, which is why a late pushback on this flight does not reliably become a late arrival. It spends 20.6 minutes on the taxiways at MSP, 2.8 minutes longer than a typical MSP departure in the same hour.
On arrival at DEN, UA2272 spends 12.2 min taxiing from touchdown to the gate — ground time a connecting passenger sits through before they can even leave the aircraft, on top of however late the flight itself ran. That is 2.4 minutes longer than a typical DEN arrival (9.8 min).
Departure delay is averaged over every pushback and arrival delay over every completed arrival, so the two counts differ by the flights that never reached DEN. Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block rather than on top of it; the comparison is 7,567 departures from MSP scheduled in the clock hour UA2272 most often leaves in. Taxi-in is landing to gate, compared against every arrival FlyerIntel has on file at DEN (963,027 flights), not just UA2272’s own. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026
The hour it leaves MSP
Part of any flight’s record belongs to the clock rather than to the flight. UA2272 has one departure time, so this is what that time is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 7,567 departures from MSP are scheduled in the 5 PM–6 PM hour over the period, against 369,781 across the whole day.
UA2272 is scheduled out of MSP at 5:00 PM, in the 5 PM–6 PM bank. Departures from MSP in that hour arrive on time 69.5% of the time against 81.1% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 11.6 points worse before anything about this particular flight is considered.
The two airport figures cover every departure from MSP to every destination, so they describe the slot rather than this journey — the like-for-like comparison against the route is above. Hours are scheduled local, and a number whose schedule moved between banks inside the period has no single hour and is not described here at all. Why the hour matters.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Hours below 120 departures are not scored.
By day of week
Does UA2272 run worse on particular days?
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Wednesday the least, a gap of 9.4 percentage points.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Days with fewer than 120 operations are not scored.
Other routes UA2272 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SFO→MSP San Francisco to Minneapolis | March 5, 2026 – May 20, 2026 | 77 | — |
| DEN→MCI Denver to Kansas City | April 3–29, 2026 | 3 | — |
| DEN→PSC Denver to Pasco | January 6, 2026 – February 11, 2026 | 37 | — |
| EWR→DEN Newark to Denver | September 25, 2025 – October 25, 2025 | 31 | — |
| DEN→MTJ Denver to Montrose | May 22–31, 2025 | 10 | — |
| DEN→MSN Denver to Madison | June 1–26, 2024 | 26 | — |
| IAH→FLL Houston to Fort Lauderdale | February 15, 2024 – March 6, 2024 | 21 | — |
| IAD→JAX Washington to Jacksonville | January 8, 2024 | 1 | — |
| SLC→ORD Salt Lake City to Chicago | January 1–6, 2024 | 5 | — |
| PHL→DEN Philadelphia to Denver | December 21–31, 2023 | 11 | — |
Because the same number has served different journeys, the statistics above describe only the route UA2272 currently operates. Blending them would produce an average of two different flights.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
108 min late
against a median of 2 min early
UA2272 has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 2 min early, but the worst tenth are 110 minutes worse than that. If the trip has something unmissable at the end of it, the median is the wrong number to plan against.
Percentiles over 1,026 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
Other flights on this route
Same airports, same journey, different odds of arriving on time.
| Flight | Airline | On time | Median arrival | Operations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F91149 | Frontier Airlines | 83.8% | 11 min early | 809 |
| DL1025 | Delta Air Lines | 76.1% | 3 min early | 785 |
| UA2272 this flight | United Airlines | 68.3% | 2 min early | 1,026 |
| DL2931 | Delta Air Lines | 64.7% | 1 min late | 769 |
Every departure listed carries at least 600 operations, so the comparison is between figures that mean something. UA2272 is placed in the same ordering rather than left out of it; the rows around it are the most punctual departures on the route, not all of them, so this is a comparison and not a rank. Schedules change; confirm the departure still operates before booking around this.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,026 records of UA2272 operating MSP → DEN, 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.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: Most and Least Reliable Flight Numbers · The Delay You Inherit · Making Up Time in the Air
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