Route profile
DEN→ABQ
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Denver to Albuquerque, 349 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 56% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 9,309 flights. How this is calculated
DEN → ABQ arrives on time 76.9% of the time; the return trip, ABQ → DEN, arrives on time 82.6% of the time, a 5.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DEN → ABQ spends 23.7 minutes on the ground on a 349-mile trip: 17.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DEN and 6.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at ABQ.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where DEN to ABQ differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DEN to ABQ struggles most at 5 PM: 60.8% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 11.6 points behind the 72.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9 points.
DEN to ABQ is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 AM: 90.6% arrive on time, 3.7 points ahead of the 86.9% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 4.7 points.
Tuesday is the day DEN to ABQ slips furthest against routes of similar length, 79.9% on time where they average 83.8%, 3.9 points lower.
In June, DEN to ABQ runs 7.5 points below routes of similar length, 67.2% on time to 74.7%. Against all other routes the gap is 5.5 points.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on DEN to ABQ arrive on time 74.5% of the time, 6.5 points below the 81.0% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 2.9 points.
DEN to ABQ against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 60.8% | routes of similar length | 72.4% | −11.6 pts | 301 here, 81,830 there |
| Hour: 8 AM departures | 90.6% | routes of similar length | 86.9% | +3.7 pts | 1,490 here, 86,855 there |
| Weekday: Tuesday | 79.9% | routes of similar length | 83.8% | −3.9 pts | 1,278 here, 174,143 there |
| Month: June | 67.2% | routes of similar length | 74.7% | −7.5 pts | 832 here, 101,958 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 74.5% | routes of similar length | 81.0% | −6.5 pts | 4,654 here, 442,840 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 DEN → ABQ flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DEN → ABQ cancelled 56 of 9,309 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 166. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 64.3% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 259 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 56 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.
36 cancellations, 64.3% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
13 cancellations, 23.2% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
7 cancellations, 12.5% 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. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
56 coded cancellations were recorded on DEN → ABQ; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
45 min late
against a median of 3 min early
Percentiles over 9,309 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ABQ after arriving from DEN.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 22% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.1% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.0% | 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 0.60% of the time and diverts 0.06% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 9,247 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 45 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 9,309 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DEN → ABQ flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.6% of the time, against 65.0% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 25.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 89.2% on time from 316 flights
- 8 AM: 90.6% on time from 1,494 flights
- 9 AM: 89.3% on time from 214 flights
- 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 82.8% on time from 1,395 flights
- 12 PM: 79.9% on time from 180 flights
- 1 PM: 79.1% on time from 427 flights
- 2 PM: 75.1% on time from 282 flights
- 3 PM: 76.5% on time from 1,464 flights
- 4 PM: 70.7% on time from 246 flights
- 5 PM: 60.8% on time from 304 flights
- 6 PM: 63.5% on time from 304 flights
- 7 PM: 64.7% on time from 574 flights
- 8 PM: 68.4% on time from 1,257 flights
- 9 PM: 69.5% on time from 374 flights
- 10 PM: 60.6% on time from 355 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why DEN → ABQ runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow 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 DEN → ABQ. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DEN → ABQ, at 51.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.6% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 65.0%.
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 | 4,682 | 74.5% | 0.56% | -2 min | 7.1% |
| United Airlines | 2,693 | 77.1% | 0.56% | -4 min | 8.7% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,934 | 82.7% | 0.78% | -7 min | 6.0% |
Southwest Airlines flew 50.3% of the 9,309 flights listed.
SkyWest Airlines arrived on time 8.2 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.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 5.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 79.7%
- Feb: 80.0%
- Mar: 80.6%
- Apr: 76.4%
- May: 71.6%
- Jun: 67.2%
- Jul: 68.5%
- Aug: 74.3%
- Sep: 82.0%
- Oct: 82.0%
- Nov: 83.7%
- Dec: 83.2%
June is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 16.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 57.6% from 229 flights
- August 2023: 77.3% from 269 flights
- September 2023: 83.0% from 235 flights
- October 2023: 76.8% from 289 flights
- November 2023: 84.0% from 231 flights
- December 2023: 83.3% from 240 flights
- January 2024: 78.9% from 211 flights
- February 2024: 75.3% from 191 flights
- March 2024: 79.1% from 217 flights
- April 2024: 75.1% from 221 flights
- May 2024: 64.9% from 240 flights
- June 2024: 68.4% from 252 flights
- July 2024: 76.7% from 255 flights
- August 2024: 75.4% from 240 flights
- September 2024: 85.7% from 231 flights
- October 2024: 86.3% from 262 flights
- November 2024: 77.9% from 247 flights
- December 2024: 89.8% from 254 flights
- January 2025: 77.5% from 227 flights
- February 2025: 80.4% from 209 flights
- March 2025: 83.3% from 249 flights
- April 2025: 73.9% from 250 flights
- May 2025: 71.6% from 287 flights
- June 2025: 63.1% from 284 flights
- July 2025: 63.4% from 288 flights
- August 2025: 70.3% from 268 flights
- September 2025: 77.8% from 257 flights
- October 2025: 83.2% from 297 flights
- November 2025: 88.9% from 263 flights
- December 2025: 76.8% from 266 flights
- January 2026: 82.6% from 224 flights
- February 2026: 84.1% from 209 flights
- March 2026: 79.2% from 249 flights
- April 2026: 79.9% from 259 flights
- May 2026: 77.1% from 296 flights
- June 2026: 70.0% from 300 flights
- July 2026: 74.4% from 313 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.4% against 76.9% in the 12 months before — improving by 1.5 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 9,309 DEN → ABQ 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