Route profile
DEN→JFK
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Denver to New York, 1,626 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 24% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,656 flights. How this is calculated
DEN → JFK arrives on time 78.4% of the time; the return trip, JFK → DEN, arrives on time 74.0% of the time, a 4.4-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DEN → JFK spends 27.7 minutes on the ground on a 1,626-mile trip: 17.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DEN and 10.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at JFK.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
The airline matters unusually much on this route, a wider carrier-to-carrier gap than 93% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 85.5% of the time, against 65.8% for JetBlue, flying the exact same route.
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 DEN to JFK differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DEN to JFK struggles most at 11 AM: 71.3% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 6.7 points behind the 78.0% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9.7 points.
May is kinder to DEN to JFK than to routes of similar length: 81.5% on time against 74.8%, 6.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 6.3 points.
JetBlue’s flights on DEN to JFK arrive on time 65.8% of the time, 3.3 points below the 69.1% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 6.4 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on DEN to JFK than on its routes of similar length: 85.5% on time here, 82.5% there, 3 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 4 points.
DEN to JFK against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 11 AM departures | 71.3% | routes of similar length | 78.0% | −6.7 pts | 310 here, 89,542 there |
| Month: May | 81.5% | routes of similar length | 74.8% | +6.7 pts | 356 here, 133,740 there |
| Airline: JetBlue | 65.8% | routes of similar length | 69.1% | −3.3 pts | 1,629 here, 48,921 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 85.5% | routes of similar length | 82.5% | +3.0 pts | 2,839 here, 304,771 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 1,626 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 → JFK flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DEN → JFK cancelled 112 of 4,656 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 42. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 42.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 99 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 112 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.
47 cancellations, 42.0% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
41 cancellations, 36.6% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
24 cancellations, 21.4% 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.
112 coded cancellations were recorded on DEN → JFK; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
52 min late
against a median of 10 min early
DEN → JFK has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 10 min early, but the worst tenth are 62 minutes worse than that. If the trip has something unmissable at the end of it, the median is the wrong number to plan against.
Percentiles over 4,656 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at JFK after arriving from DEN.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 33% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 8.7% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.7% | Some 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 2.41% of the time and diverts 0.58% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,517 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 52 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,656 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DEN → JFK flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.5% of the time, against 72.8% for 9 AM–12 PM departures, a gap of 16.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM: 75.8% on time from 124 flights
- 1 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 89.3% on time from 812 flights
- 7 AM: 89.5% on time from 300 flights
- 8 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 71.3% on time from 327 flights
- 12 PM: 79.5% on time from 1,082 flights
- 1 PM: 69.5% on time from 249 flights
- 2 PM to 10 PM: too few flights to score
- 11 PM: 73.8% on time from 1,418 flights
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why DEN → JFK 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 DEN → JFK. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 2,908 | 85.5% | 1.82% | -14 min | 5.5% |
| JetBlue | 1,699 | 65.8% | 3.47% | -1 min | 15.0% |
Delta Air Lines flew 63.1% of the 4,607 flights listed. JetBlue cancelled 3.47% of its flights here against 1.82% for Delta Air Lines.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 19.7 percentage points more often than JetBlue on this route.
Other ways to fly Denver to New York
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DEN→LGA Denver to New York | 14,617 | 74.2% | 1.83% | -4 min | 54 |
| DEN→JFK this route Denver to New York | 4,656 | 78.4% | 2.41% | -10 min | 55 |
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 Sunday the least, a gap of 8.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 78.7%
- Feb: 80.0%
- Mar: 79.3%
- Apr: 84.8%
- May: 81.5%
- Jun: 70.2%
- Jul: 67.2%
- Aug: 76.4%
- Sep: 83.5%
- Oct: 83.7%
- Nov: 82.7%
- Dec: 80.0%
July is historically the weakest month and April the strongest, a spread of 17.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 62.8% from 153 flights
- August 2023: 79.2% from 130 flights
- September 2023: too few flights to score (117)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (112)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (103)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (114)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (101)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (95)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (111)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (107)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (111)
- June 2024: 67.7% from 135 flights
- July 2024: 68.8% from 155 flights
- August 2024: 69.6% from 135 flights
- September 2024: 82.3% from 141 flights
- October 2024: 93.5% from 153 flights
- November 2024: 82.2% from 135 flights
- December 2024: 76.2% from 144 flights
- January 2025: too few flights to score (117)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (94)
- March 2025: 81.7% from 122 flights
- April 2025: too few flights to score (91)
- May 2025: 73.4% from 124 flights
- June 2025: 63.0% from 143 flights
- July 2025: 62.0% from 153 flights
- August 2025: 79.6% from 154 flights
- September 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- October 2025: 77.3% from 143 flights
- November 2025: 81.7% from 127 flights
- December 2025: 78.5% from 157 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (103)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (101)
- March 2026: 82.0% from 136 flights
- April 2026: too few flights to score (118)
- May 2026: 90.2% from 124 flights
- June 2026: 80.0% from 137 flights
- July 2026: 76.3% from 141 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.3% against 76.3% in the 12 months before — improving by 6.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,656 DEN → JFK 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