Route profile
ANC→DEN
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Anchorage to Denver, 2,405 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 87% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,082 flights. How this is calculated
ANC → DEN arrives on time 84.8% of the time; the return trip, DEN → ANC, arrives on time 78.5% of the time, a 6.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
ANC → DEN spends 25.4 minutes on the ground on a 2,405-mile trip: 16.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at ANC and 8.5 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 ANC to DEN differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
ANC to DEN is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 2 PM: 84.5% arrive on time, 9.7 points ahead of the 74.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9.9 points.
ANC to DEN holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 87.6% on time to their 77.4%, a 10.2 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 11.4 points.
September is kinder to ANC to DEN than to routes of similar length: 93.0% on time against 82.1%, 10.9 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 10.6 points.
United Airlines does better on ANC to DEN than on its routes of similar length: 84.6% on time here, 81.2% there, 3.4 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 4.7 points.
ANC to DEN against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 84.5% | routes of similar length | 74.8% | +9.7 pts | 277 here, 31,952 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 87.6% | routes of similar length | 77.4% | +10.2 pts | 299 here, 161,167 there |
| Month: September | 93.0% | routes of similar length | 82.1% | +10.9 pts | 129 here, 86,870 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 84.6% | routes of similar length | 81.2% | +3.4 pts | 1,577 here, 239,674 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 2,405 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.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
27 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 2,082 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DEN after arriving from ANC.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 31% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 9.2% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.2% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.7% | 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 0.67% of the time and diverts 0.10% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,066 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 27 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,082 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Why ANC → DEN runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for ANC → DEN. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 1,591 | 84.6% | 0.75% | -10 min | 4.4% |
| Alaska Airlines | 413 | 90.5% | 0.48% | -10 min | 1.9% |
United Airlines flew 79.4% of the 2,004 flights listed.
Alaska Airlines arrived on time 5.9 percentage points more often than United Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA1959 United Airlines | 11:45 PM | 1,080 | 85.8% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Friday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 5.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (93)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (93)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (38)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (31)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (30)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (31)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (31)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (29)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (31)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (30)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (56)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (97)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (96)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (48)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (31)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (30)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (31)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (31)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (28)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (31)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (30)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (58)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (93)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (97)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (96)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (43)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (31)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (30)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (44)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (50)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (53)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (36)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (30)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (90)
- June 2026: 77.3% from 135 flights
- July 2026: 82.1% from 157 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.2% against 90.5% in the 12 months before — declining by 8.3 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,082 ANC → 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
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed