Route profile
DEN→MEM
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Denver to Memphis, 872 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 39% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,981 flights. How this is calculated
DEN → MEM arrives on time 74.5% of the time; the return trip, MEM → DEN, arrives on time 78.9% of the time, a 4.4-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DEN → MEM spends 23.6 minutes on the ground on an 872-mile trip: 18.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DEN and 5.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at MEM.
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 94% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Frontier Airlines arrived on time 84.2% of the time, against 64.2% for Southwest Airlines, 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 MEM differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DEN to MEM struggles most at 8 PM: 47.9% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 18.7 points behind the 66.6% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 19.5 points.
DEN to MEM is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 11 AM: 86.8% arrive on time, 5.7 points ahead of the 81.1% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 5.8 points.
Tuesday is the day DEN to MEM slips furthest against routes of similar length, 76.8% on time where they average 81.2%, 4.4 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 4.8 points.
In June, DEN to MEM runs 11.6 points below routes of similar length, 60.1% on time to 71.7%. Against all other routes the gap is 12.6 points.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on DEN to MEM arrive on time 64.2% of the time, 12.3 points below the 76.5% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 13.2 points.
DEN to MEM against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 47.9% | routes of similar length | 66.6% | −18.7 pts | 163 here, 136,073 there |
| Hour: 11 AM departures | 86.8% | routes of similar length | 81.1% | +5.7 pts | 569 here, 167,976 there |
| Weekday: Tuesday | 76.8% | routes of similar length | 81.2% | −4.4 pts | 525 here, 362,595 there |
| Month: June | 60.1% | routes of similar length | 71.7% | −11.6 pts | 331 here, 219,040 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 64.2% | routes of similar length | 76.5% | −12.3 pts | 1,283 here, 743,489 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 872 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
54 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 3,981 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MEM after arriving from DEN.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 42% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 25% | High risk |
| 60 min | 17% | High risk |
| 90 min | 9.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.6% | 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 0.60% of the time and diverts 0.18% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,950 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 54 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,981 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DEN → MEM flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.8% of the time, against 60.8% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 27.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 82.9% on time from 755 flights
- 11 AM: 86.8% on time from 576 flights
- 12 PM: 75.4% on time from 171 flights
- 1 PM: 78.3% on time from 130 flights
- 2 PM: 80.3% on time from 147 flights
- 3 PM: 67.0% on time from 232 flights
- 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 70.7% on time from 870 flights
- 6 PM: 72.7% on time from 373 flights
- 7 PM: 52.8% on time from 292 flights
- 8 PM: 47.9% on time from 165 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why DEN → MEM 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 → MEM. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DEN → MEM, at 53.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 87.8% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 60.8%.
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 | 2,249 | 78.4% | 0.67% | -6 min | 8.1% |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,291 | 64.2% | 0.54% | 4 min | 12.0% |
| Frontier Airlines | 440 | 84.2% | 0.45% | -10 min | 6.2% |
United Airlines flew 56.5% of the 3,980 flights listed.
Frontier Airlines arrived on time 20.0 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA2130 United Airlines | 5:30 PM | 682 | 72.6% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 5.7 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 78.1%
- Feb: 77.9%
- Mar: 76.5%
- Apr: 75.9%
- May: 70.6%
- Jun: 60.1%
- Jul: 61.6%
- Aug: 68.7%
- Sep: 83.9%
- Oct: 84.6%
- Nov: 81.8%
- Dec: 81.1%
June is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 24.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (116)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (108)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (106)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (108)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (102)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (107)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (104)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (98)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (112)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (107)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (110)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (107)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (110)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (107)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (102)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (106)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (99)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (104)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (103)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (92)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (105)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (101)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (102)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (99)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (102)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (103)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (102)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (105)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (102)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (106)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (105)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (97)
- March 2026: 69.8% from 129 flights
- April 2026: 83.1% from 125 flights
- May 2026: 71.9% from 129 flights
- June 2026: 60.9% from 128 flights
- July 2026: 65.4% from 133 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.9% against 71.6% in the 12 months before — improving by 5.3 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,981 DEN → MEM 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