Holiday travel
Thanksgiving at DEN
Denver International Airport, Denver, CO. July 2023 – July 2026. Set against DEN’s own ordinary days of the same weekday in the weeks around each holiday.
The window, year by year
The window runs the Wednesday before through the Sunday after, around Thanksgiving Day (the fourth Thursday of November). In the data: Nov 22–26, 2023; Nov 27 – Dec 1, 2024; Nov 26–30, 2025. Three windows are in the data: enough to see whether a day repeats, not enough to call it a rule.
Thanksgiving flights ran worse than ordinary days in all three years. The gap ran from 10.7 points below usual in 2023 to 1.6 points below usual in 2024.
0.34% of scheduled departures were cancelled across the Thanksgiving windows, against 0.95% on ordinary days of the same weekdays. It was lower in two of the three years.
| Year | Departures | On time | Usual | Gap, points | Cancelled | Usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023Nov 22–26, 2023 | 3,752 | 70.0% | 80.7% | −10.7worse | 0.21% | 0.95% |
| 2024Nov 27 – Dec 1, 2024 | 4,049 | 79.1% | 80.7% | −1.6worse | 0.02% | 0.94% |
| 2025Nov 26–30, 2025 | 4,128 | 75.4% | 80.7% | −5.3worse | 0.75% | 0.95% |
| All years3 windows | 11,929 | 75.0% | 80.7% | −5.7worse | 0.34% | 0.95% |
Day by day
No day was the worst more than once: Saturday, Nov 25 in 2023, Wednesday, Nov 27 in 2024, and Sunday, Nov 30 in 2025.
Thanksgiving Day was the best day of the window in two of the three years. Over the years it ran 91.4% on time, 11.6 points above an ordinary Thursday.
Thanksgiving Day itself carried 45% fewer departures than an ordinary Thursday and ran 91.4% on time.
- Better than usual
- Worse than usual
- About the same
- What ordinary days of the same weekday had
- Lowest to highest single year
- Lighter bars: days just outside the window
Bars show the on-time arrival rate and start at 40%, not zero. A dashed stub is a day with too few flights to print a rate.
| Day | Departures against an ordinary day | On time | Usual | Gap, points | Cancelled | Each year: 2023, 2024, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday beforeoutside the window | about the same | 83.2% | 85.6% | −2.4worse | 0.23% | 79.4 · 84.3 · 85.8 |
| Tuesday beforeoutside the window | 13% more | 85.2% | 87.8% | −2.6worse | 0.34% | 79.6 · 88.0 · 87.5 |
| Wednesday before | 13% more | 75.4% | 80.4% | −5.0worse | 0.04% | 90.6 · 49.8 · 87.2 |
| Thanksgiving Day | 45% fewer | 91.4% | 79.8% | +11.6better | 0.00% | 91.7 · 90.2 · 92.4 |
| Friday after | 6% fewer | 75.3% | 79.1% | −3.8worse | 0.37% | 46.7 · 90.7 · 86.8 |
| Saturday after | 18% more | 64.8% | 81.8% | −17.0worse | 0.68% | 46.1 · 82.5 · 63.6 |
| Sunday after | 6% more | 75.5% | 81.9% | −6.4worse | 0.43% | 81.4 · 88.8 · 57.0 |
| Monday afteroutside the window | 5% more | 80.7% | 85.6% | −4.9worse | 0.22% | 85.2 · 86.7 · 70.6 |
| Tuesday afteroutside the window | 4% fewer | 86.7% | 87.8% | −1.1about the same | 0.09% | 86.5 · 92.2 · 81.3 |
A dash means fewer than 120 flights stood behind the figure, or behind the ordinary days it would be compared with: too few to print a rate, and nothing is estimated in its place. “Usual” is what ordinary days of the same weekday had at the same place in the weeks around the holiday, weighted by the flights being compared.
Which departure times held up
The busiest days at DEN were Wednesday, Nov 22, 2023 (835 departures), Sunday, Nov 26, 2023 (851 departures), Wednesday, Nov 27, 2024 (921 departures), Sunday, Dec 1, 2024 (943 departures), Saturday, Nov 29, 2025 (928 departures), and Sunday, Nov 30, 2025 (966 departures).
Across the whole window, flights leaving 5–9 AM had the highest on-time rate: 80.4%, still 5.8 points below usual for that time of day. Those leaving 9 AM–12 PM had the lowest: 71.8%, 10.3 points below usual for that time of day.
The holiday cost flights leaving 9 AM–12 PM the most (10.3 points below usual for that time of day) and those leaving 3–6 PM the least (2.2 points below).
On each year’s two busiest days, flights leaving 5–9 AM had the highest on-time rate: 75.0%, still 11.8 points below usual for that time of day. Those leaving 9 AM–12 PM had the lowest: 67.3%, 16.1 points below usual for that time of day.
The holiday cost flights leaving 9 AM–12 PM the most (16.1 points below usual for that time of day) and those leaving 3–6 PM the least (5.9 points below).
| Leaving | On time, whole window | Usual | Gap, points | On time, busiest days | Usual | Gap, points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5–9 AM | 80.4% | 86.2% | −5.8worse | 75.0% | 86.8% | −11.8worse |
| 9 AM–12 PM | 71.8% | 82.1% | −10.3worse | 67.3% | 83.4% | −16.1worse |
| 12–3 PM | 76.3% | 80.8% | −4.5worse | 74.2% | 81.2% | −7.0worse |
| 3–6 PM | 76.0% | 78.2% | −2.2worse | 73.3% | 79.2% | −5.9worse |
| 6–9 PM | 73.0% | 76.4% | −3.4worse | 70.9% | 77.2% | −6.3worse |
| 9 PM–5 AM | 72.4% | 80.4% | −8.0worse | 68.4% | 80.3% | −11.9worse |
Cancellations
The worst day for cancellations in each year was Saturday, Nov 29, 2025 (1.62% of that day’s departures, 48% of the window’s cancellations).
DEN beside every covered airport
Storms and outages move whole regions at once. This puts DEN’s year beside the year of all covered airports together, each against its own usual, to show whether DEN did better or worse than the network.
| Year | DEN on time | DEN, gap from usual | All airports on time | All airports, gap from usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023Nov 22–26, 2023 | 70.0% | −10.7 | 83.7% | +1.9 |
| 2024Nov 27 – Dec 1, 2024 | 79.1% | −1.6 | 82.6% | +0.8 |
| 2025Nov 26–30, 2025 | 75.4% | −5.3 | 72.8% | −9.0 |
For every holiday at once, see the five holidays at DEN, or the network view.