Route profile
BUR→DEN
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Burbank to Denver, 850 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 76% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,420 flights. How this is calculated
BUR → DEN arrives on time 83.1% of the time; the return trip, DEN → BUR, arrives on time 74.3% of the time, an 8.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
BUR → DEN spends 24.9 minutes on the ground on an 850-mile trip: 17.3 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at BUR and 7.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at DEN.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every airline on this route performs about the same, a narrower carrier gap than 97% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Southwest Airlines (83.5% on time) and United Airlines (82.8%) are close together here.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 2,692 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where BUR to DEN differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
BUR to DEN is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 77.8% arrive on time, 10.3 points ahead of the 67.5% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9.2 points.
BUR to DEN struggles most at 3 PM: 64.9% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 6.1 points behind the 71.0% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.8 points.
BUR to DEN holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 86.8% on time to their 78.5%, a 8.3 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7.7 points.
January is kinder to BUR to DEN than to routes of similar length: 87.6% on time against 78.7%, 8.9 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 8.5 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on BUR to DEN than on its routes of similar length: 83.5% on time here, 76.6% there, 6.9 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 6.1 points.
BUR to DEN against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 77.8% | routes of similar length | 67.5% | +10.3 pts | 221 here, 164,682 there |
| Hour: 3 PM departures | 64.9% | routes of similar length | 71.0% | −6.1 pts | 285 here, 151,894 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 86.8% | routes of similar length | 78.5% | +8.3 pts | 821 here, 333,946 there |
| Month: January | 87.6% | routes of similar length | 78.7% | +8.9 pts | 468 here, 191,167 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 83.5% | routes of similar length | 76.6% | +6.9 pts | 4,023 here, 702,368 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 850 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 BUR → DEN flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
BUR → DEN cancelled 52 of 6,420 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 123. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 48.1% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 257 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 52 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
25 cancellations, 48.1% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
22 cancellations, 42.3% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
5 cancellations, 9.6% of the total.
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. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
52 coded cancellations were recorded on BUR → DEN; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
36 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 6,420 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DEN after arriving from BUR.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 30% | High risk |
| 45 min | 16% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.1% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.8% | 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 0.81% of the time and diverts 0.51% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,335 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 36 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,420 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
BUR → DEN flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 91.4% of the time, against 69.0% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 22.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 92.7% on time from 951 flights
- 8 AM: 89.7% on time from 721 flights
- 9 AM: 88.1% on time from 1,082 flights
- 10 AM: 89.2% on time from 317 flights
- 11 AM: 86.8% on time from 171 flights
- 12 PM: 79.5% on time from 490 flights
- 1 PM: 79.8% on time from 1,216 flights
- 2 PM: 72.3% on time from 265 flights
- 3 PM: 64.9% on time from 291 flights
- 4 PM: 70.2% on time from 329 flights
- 5 PM: 73.3% on time from 182 flights
- 6 PM: 77.8% on time from 228 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why BUR → DEN runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for BUR → DEN. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on BUR → DEN, at 37.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 91.4% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 69.0%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 4,070 | 83.5% | 0.76% | -8 min | 6.0% |
| United Airlines | 2,227 | 82.8% | 0.94% | -10 min | 6.4% |
Southwest Airlines flew 64.6% of the 6,297 flights listed.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
Other ways to fly Los Angeles to Denver
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
Flying to DEN from the Los Angeles area? Compare BUR, LAX, SNA, ONT for DEN, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA1191 United Airlines | 9:00 AM | 1,059 | 87.0% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 5.9 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 87.6%
- Feb: 87.5%
- Mar: 84.7%
- Apr: 85.0%
- May: 76.9%
- Jun: 77.0%
- Jul: 76.1%
- Aug: 80.2%
- Sep: 85.8%
- Oct: 88.2%
- Nov: 87.5%
- Dec: 85.4%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 12.1 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 73.4% from 148 flights
- August 2023: 78.0% from 136 flights
- September 2023: 91.6% from 143 flights
- October 2023: too few flights to score (115)
- November 2023: 86.1% from 144 flights
- December 2023: 91.7% from 157 flights
- January 2024: 86.2% from 149 flights
- February 2024: 85.2% from 130 flights
- March 2024: 85.3% from 133 flights
- April 2024: 91.8% from 159 flights
- May 2024: 81.5% from 162 flights
- June 2024: 76.1% from 181 flights
- July 2024: 79.0% from 190 flights
- August 2024: 80.0% from 183 flights
- September 2024: 84.5% from 175 flights
- October 2024: 90.4% from 181 flights
- November 2024: 89.3% from 181 flights
- December 2024: 84.6% from 201 flights
- January 2025: 82.9% from 174 flights
- February 2025: 88.2% from 161 flights
- March 2025: 89.1% from 187 flights
- April 2025: 74.6% from 210 flights
- May 2025: 65.6% from 212 flights
- June 2025: 72.7% from 218 flights
- July 2025: 70.9% from 224 flights
- August 2025: 81.7% from 216 flights
- September 2025: 82.9% from 206 flights
- October 2025: 86.0% from 216 flights
- November 2025: 87.0% from 201 flights
- December 2025: 80.8% from 173 flights
- January 2026: 94.1% from 154 flights
- February 2026: 88.8% from 147 flights
- March 2026: 79.4% from 168 flights
- April 2026: 91.9% from 160 flights
- May 2026: 86.5% from 171 flights
- June 2026: 83.2% from 183 flights
- July 2026: 82.4% from 171 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 85.2% against 80.4% in the 12 months before — improving by 4.8 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,420 BUR → 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