Route profile
DEN→BUR
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Denver to Burbank, 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 47% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,363 flights. How this is calculated
DEN → BUR arrives on time 74.3% of the time; the return trip, BUR → DEN, arrives on time 83.1% of the time, an 8.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DEN → BUR spends 21.0 minutes on the ground on an 850-mile trip: 16.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DEN and 4.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at BUR.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where DEN to BUR differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DEN to BUR struggles most at 5 PM: 52.5% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 15.5 points behind the 68.0% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 17.3 points.
DEN to BUR is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 AM: 90.4% arrive on time, 3.9 points ahead of the 86.5% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 4.5 points.
Friday is the day DEN to BUR slips furthest against routes of similar length, 68.6% on time where they average 75.9%, 7.3 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 7.6 points.
In June, DEN to BUR runs 8.4 points below routes of similar length, 63.4% on time to 71.8%. Against all other routes the gap is 9.3 points.
United Airlines’ flights on DEN to BUR arrive on time 75.4% of the time, 4.5 points below the 79.9% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 4.5 points.
DEN to BUR against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 52.5% | routes of similar length | 68.0% | −15.5 pts | 236 here, 155,560 there |
| Hour: 8 AM departures | 90.4% | routes of similar length | 86.5% | +3.9 pts | 519 here, 176,891 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 68.6% | routes of similar length | 75.9% | −7.3 pts | 934 here, 384,930 there |
| Month: June | 63.4% | routes of similar length | 71.8% | −8.4 pts | 585 here, 212,379 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 75.4% | routes of similar length | 79.9% | −4.5 pts | 2,210 here, 441,052 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.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
49 min late
against a median of 3 min early
Percentiles over 6,363 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at BUR after arriving from DEN.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 43% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 25% | High risk |
| 60 min | 16% | High risk |
| 90 min | 7.4% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.1% | 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 0.55% of the time and diverts 0.30% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,309 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 49 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,363 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DEN → BUR flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 91.4% of the time, against 64.1% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 27.3 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 91.5% on time from 392 flights
- 8 AM: 90.4% on time from 524 flights
- 9 AM: 90.0% on time from 160 flights
- 10 AM: 81.3% on time from 268 flights
- 11 AM: 80.2% on time from 1,096 flights
- 12 PM: 80.6% on time from 173 flights
- 1 PM: 78.1% on time from 408 flights
- 2 PM: 76.3% on time from 162 flights
- 3 PM: 73.6% on time from 360 flights
- 4 PM: 65.8% on time from 351 flights
- 5 PM: 52.5% on time from 237 flights
- 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 69.0% on time from 1,321 flights
- 8 PM: 55.8% on time from 748 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why DEN → BUR 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 → BUR. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DEN → BUR, at 52.0%: 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 6–9 PM departures 64.1%.
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 | 4,013 | 73.5% | 0.60% | -2 min | 7.3% |
| United Airlines | 2,227 | 75.4% | 0.49% | -5 min | 8.5% |
Southwest Airlines flew 64.3% of the 6,240 flights listed.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
Other ways to fly Denver to Los Angeles
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
DEN → SNA is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 79.9% on time, against 74.3% for DEN → BUR.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA2411 United Airlines | 7:05 PM | 670 | 69.5% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 9.9 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 79.8%
- Feb: 77.4%
- Mar: 79.4%
- Apr: 78.5%
- May: 71.3%
- Jun: 63.4%
- Jul: 67.6%
- Aug: 69.2%
- Sep: 76.4%
- Oct: 78.3%
- Nov: 77.0%
- Dec: 79.0%
June is historically the weakest month and January the strongest, a spread of 16.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 69.7% from 136 flights
- August 2023: 68.3% from 126 flights
- September 2023: 69.7% from 145 flights
- October 2023: too few flights to score (109)
- November 2023: 79.6% from 142 flights
- December 2023: 83.4% from 157 flights
- January 2024: 78.7% from 144 flights
- February 2024: 68.3% from 122 flights
- March 2024: 79.8% from 126 flights
- April 2024: 81.5% from 151 flights
- May 2024: 68.0% from 153 flights
- June 2024: 67.4% from 181 flights
- July 2024: 75.1% from 190 flights
- August 2024: 70.3% from 183 flights
- September 2024: 80.6% from 175 flights
- October 2024: 87.7% from 181 flights
- November 2024: 73.7% from 180 flights
- December 2024: 83.5% from 201 flights
- January 2025: 78.7% from 174 flights
- February 2025: 79.5% from 161 flights
- March 2025: 80.6% from 183 flights
- April 2025: 75.4% from 212 flights
- May 2025: 69.5% from 215 flights
- June 2025: 62.7% from 219 flights
- July 2025: 61.7% from 224 flights
- August 2025: 68.7% from 215 flights
- September 2025: 77.6% from 206 flights
- October 2025: 71.2% from 216 flights
- November 2025: 78.0% from 201 flights
- December 2025: 69.3% from 172 flights
- January 2026: 81.9% from 155 flights
- February 2026: 82.6% from 147 flights
- March 2026: 77.8% from 168 flights
- April 2026: 80.0% from 160 flights
- May 2026: 76.6% from 171 flights
- June 2026: 60.4% from 187 flights
- July 2026: 65.7% from 175 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 73.8% against 74.8% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,363 DEN → BUR 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