ABQ → DEN Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · ABQNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 12:52 UTC

Albuquerque airport profile →

Destination · DENNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 12:53 UTC

Denver airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

76/ 100Strong

Better than 78% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 9,308 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

82.6%

7,608 of 9,213

Cancellation rate

0.83%

77 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-8 min

Average 3.2 min

Severe delays

5.6%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

63 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

9,308

3 carriers

ABQ → DEN arrives on time 82.6% of the time; the return trip, DEN → ABQ, arrives on time 76.9% of the time, a 5.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

ABQ → DEN spends 23.4 minutes on the ground on a 349-mile trip: 15.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at ABQ and 8.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at DEN.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

What sets this route apart

Where ABQ to DEN differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.

ABQ to DEN struggles most at 4 PM: 55.9% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 17.7 points behind the 73.6% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 14.8 points.

ABQ to DEN is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 11 AM: 90.5% arrive on time, 6.7 points ahead of the 83.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9.5 points.

ABQ to DEN holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 82.8% on time to their 76.5%, a 6.3 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 8 points.

December is kinder to ABQ to DEN than to routes of similar length: 87.7% on time against 80.4%, 7.3 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9 points.

United Airlines does better on ABQ to DEN than on its routes of similar length: 84.1% on time here, 78.3% there, 5.8 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 4.2 points.

ABQ to DEN against comparable routes

July 2023 – July 2026

Where ABQ to DEN differs most from comparable routes, with the group each figure is compared with and the flights behind it
Measure	This route	Compared with	Them	Gap	Flights behind it
Hour: 4 PM departures	55.9%	routes of similar length	73.6%	−17.7 pts	324 here, 76,068 there
Hour: 11 AM departures	90.5%	routes of similar length	83.8%	+6.7 pts	677 here, 72,793 there
Weekday: Sunday	82.8%	routes of similar length	76.5%	+6.3 pts	1,343 here, 182,683 there
Month: December	87.7%	routes of similar length	80.4%	+7.3 pts	756 here, 99,416 there
Airline: United Airlines	84.1%	routes of similar length	78.3%	+5.8 pts	2,661 here, 100,960 there

Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 349 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.

Why ABQ → DEN flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

ABQ → DEN cancelled 77 of 9,308 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 121. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 54.5% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 222 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Weather54.5%

Airline31.2%

Air traffic14.3%

Security0.0%

Of 77 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

Extreme weather1 in 222

Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.

42 cancellations, 54.5% of the total.

The airline1 in 388

Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.

24 cancellations, 31.2% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 846

Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.

11 cancellations, 14.3% of the total.

Security—

A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.

0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.

Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.

77 coded cancellations were recorded on ABQ → DEN; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

34 min late

against a median of 8 min early

Arrived an hour or more late5.6%

Typical delay when late63 min

Cancelled0.83%

Landed somewhere else0.19%

Percentiles over 9,308 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at DEN after arriving from ABQ.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, ABQ → DEN arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	31%	Likely to miss
45 min	17%	High risk
60 min	11%	Some risk
90 min	5.5%	Some risk
120 min	3.4%	Low risk

This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 0.83% of the time and diverts 0.19% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 9,213 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.

The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 34 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 9,308 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

ABQ → DEN flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.7% of the time, against 62.7% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 30.0 percentage points.

By departure window

5–9 AM92.7%

9 AM–12 PM89.3%

12–3 PM80.7%

3–6 PM62.7%

6–9 PM73.5%

9 PM–5 AM—

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.

Why ABQ → DEN runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Late-arriving aircraft40.6%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

Air traffic control31.8%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

The airline23.4%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Weather4.2%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security<0.1%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for ABQ → DEN. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on ABQ → DEN, at 40.6%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 92.7% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 62.7%.

Airlines on this route

Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.

Airlines on this route
Carrier	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Severe
Southwest Airlines	4,682	80.4%	0.83%	-6 min	5.9%
United Airlines	2,693	84.1%	0.82%	-9 min	5.7%
SkyWest Airlines	1,933	85.7%	0.83%	-9 min	4.9%

Southwest Airlines flew 50.3% of the 9,308 flights listed.

SkyWest Airlines arrived on time 5.3 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.

Flights on this route

Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.

Flights on this route
Flight	Scheduled	Operations	On time
OO5834 SkyWest Airlines	10:55 AM	682	90.6%

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon82.6%

Tue83.6%

Wed85.0%

Thu79.6%

Fri80.2%

Sat84.9%

Sun82.8%

Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 5.4 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 15.3 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 83.0% against 82.3% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 9,308 ABQ → DEN flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.

Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

ABQ airport DEN airport Return direction DEN → ABQ

ABQ→DEN

Right now

Route reliability

What sets this route apart

ABQ to DEN against comparable routes

Why ABQ → DEN flights are cancelled

Share of cancellations

What each reason means

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By departure window

By departure hour

Why ABQ → DEN runs late

Airlines on this route

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology