Route profile
DEN→CLE
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Denver to Cleveland, 1,201 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 5,728 flights. How this is calculated
DEN → CLE arrives on time 76.1% of the time; the return trip, CLE → DEN, arrives on time 82.3% of the time, a 6.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DEN → CLE spends 26.4 minutes on the ground on a 1,201-mile trip: 19.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DEN and 6.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at CLE.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
On-time performance swings unusually widely by time of day here, wider than 94% of 4,023 comparable routes.
87.4% on time for 5–9 AM departures, against 55.0% for 6–9 PM.
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 4,023 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where DEN to CLE differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DEN to CLE struggles most at 7 PM: 52.3% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 13.7 points behind the 66.0% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 15.5 points.
DEN to CLE is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 3 PM: 78.4% arrive on time, 8.1 points ahead of the 70.3% those routes manage at that hour.
In February, DEN to CLE runs 4.8 points below routes of similar length, 75.7% on time to 80.5%. Against all other routes the gap is 5.8 points.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on DEN to CLE arrive on time 63.9% of the time, 11.9 points below the 75.8% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 13.5 points.
Frontier Airlines does better on DEN to CLE than on its routes of similar length: 82.2% on time here, 73.0% there, 9.2 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 11 points.
DEN to CLE against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 52.3% | routes of similar length | 66.0% | −13.7 pts | 457 here, 122,485 there |
| Hour: 3 PM departures | 78.4% | routes of similar length | 70.3% | +8.1 pts | 232 here, 112,862 there |
| Month: February | 75.7% | routes of similar length | 80.5% | −4.8 pts | 329 here, 151,388 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 63.9% | routes of similar length | 75.8% | −11.9 pts | 1,841 here, 445,571 there |
| Airline: Frontier Airlines | 82.2% | routes of similar length | 73.0% | +9.2 pts | 859 here, 83,499 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 1,201 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
45 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 5,728 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CLE after arriving from DEN.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 42% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 23% | High risk |
| 60 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.2% | 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 0.44% of the time and diverts 0.24% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,689 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 5,728 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DEN → CLE flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.4% of the time, against 55.0% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 32.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 89.6% on time from 358 flights
- 7 AM to 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 86.7% on time from 289 flights
- 10 AM: 83.8% on time from 1,227 flights
- 11 AM: 79.0% on time from 182 flights
- 12 PM: 82.1% on time from 268 flights
- 1 PM: 82.7% on time from 511 flights
- 2 PM: 79.1% on time from 238 flights
- 3 PM: 78.4% on time from 233 flights
- 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 69.7% on time from 1,237 flights
- 6 PM: 60.8% on time from 313 flights
- 7 PM: 52.3% on time from 463 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why DEN → CLE 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 → CLE. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DEN → CLE, at 50.7%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 87.4% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 55.0%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 3,004 | 81.8% | 0.27% | -7 min | 6.0% |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,850 | 63.9% | 0.38% | 5 min | 9.2% |
| Frontier Airlines | 874 | 82.2% | 1.14% | -8 min | 6.4% |
United Airlines flew 52.4% of the 5,728 flights listed.
Frontier Airlines arrived on time 18.3 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.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| F91918 Frontier Airlines | 6:00 AM | 630 | 86.3% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 4.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 75.9%
- Feb: 75.7%
- Mar: 75.4%
- Apr: 79.9%
- May: 76.0%
- Jun: 70.0%
- Jul: 70.7%
- Aug: 74.5%
- Sep: 79.0%
- Oct: 79.1%
- Nov: 81.6%
- Dec: 78.4%
June is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 11.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 68.0% from 155 flights
- August 2023: 78.2% from 197 flights
- September 2023: 78.6% from 154 flights
- October 2023: 78.7% from 170 flights
- November 2023: 81.1% from 164 flights
- December 2023: 71.8% from 165 flights
- January 2024: 67.2% from 134 flights
- February 2024: 71.4% from 127 flights
- March 2024: 73.0% from 143 flights
- April 2024: 77.6% from 135 flights
- May 2024: 76.9% from 169 flights
- June 2024: 66.3% from 174 flights
- July 2024: 74.7% from 180 flights
- August 2024: 74.6% from 177 flights
- September 2024: 85.8% from 162 flights
- October 2024: 86.1% from 151 flights
- November 2024: 76.0% from 150 flights
- December 2024: 87.3% from 158 flights
- January 2025: 74.4% from 126 flights
- February 2025: too few flights to score (101)
- March 2025: 84.2% from 121 flights
- April 2025: 82.2% from 153 flights
- May 2025: 71.4% from 161 flights
- June 2025: 69.5% from 174 flights
- July 2025: 65.6% from 186 flights
- August 2025: 70.3% from 177 flights
- September 2025: 72.7% from 163 flights
- October 2025: 73.0% from 159 flights
- November 2025: 87.6% from 153 flights
- December 2025: 76.4% from 167 flights
- January 2026: 86.9% from 122 flights
- February 2026: too few flights to score (102)
- March 2026: 69.9% from 134 flights
- April 2026: 79.6% from 138 flights
- May 2026: 79.5% from 161 flights
- June 2026: 73.9% from 180 flights
- July 2026: 74.3% from 185 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.3% against 77.7% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,728 DEN → CLE 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