Route profile
DEN→MIA
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Denver to Miami, 1,709 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 27% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,693 flights. How this is calculated
DEN → MIA arrives on time 71.7% of the time; the return trip, MIA → DEN, arrives on time 75.1% of the time, a 3.5-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DEN → MIA spends 29.9 minutes on the ground on a 1,709-mile trip: 19.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DEN and 10.1 minutes from touchdown to gate at MIA.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where DEN to MIA differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DEN to MIA struggles most at 6 AM: 73.4% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 16.7 points behind the 90.1% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 17.4 points.
Saturday is the day DEN to MIA slips furthest against routes of similar length, 69.4% on time where they average 78.7%, 9.3 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 9.7 points.
In August, DEN to MIA runs 16.6 points below routes of similar length, 59.3% on time to 75.9%. Against all other routes the gap is 17.2 points.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on DEN to MIA arrive on time 66.5% of the time, 8.8 points below the 75.3% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 10.9 points.
DEN to MIA against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 AM departures | 73.4% | routes of similar length | 90.1% | −16.7 pts | 218 here, 96,338 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 69.4% | routes of similar length | 78.7% | −9.3 pts | 1,187 here, 184,704 there |
| Month: August | 59.3% | routes of similar length | 75.9% | −16.6 pts | 528 here, 118,755 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 66.5% | routes of similar length | 75.3% | −8.8 pts | 932 here, 270,484 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 1,709 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 → MIA flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DEN → MIA cancelled 58 of 7,693 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 133. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 55.2% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 240 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 58 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.
32 cancellations, 55.2% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
20 cancellations, 34.5% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
6 cancellations, 10.3% 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.
58 coded cancellations were recorded on DEN → MIA; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
55 min late
against a median of 2 min early
Percentiles over 7,693 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MIA after arriving from DEN.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 45% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 27% | High risk |
| 60 min | 17% | High risk |
| 90 min | 9.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.4% | 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 0.75% of the time and diverts 0.44% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,601 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 55 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,693 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DEN → MIA flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 76.5% of the time, against 63.4% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 13.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM: 76.4% on time from 916 flights
- 1 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 73.4% on time from 219 flights
- 7 AM: 79.5% on time from 223 flights
- 8 AM: 77.8% on time from 245 flights
- 9 AM: 73.8% on time from 586 flights
- 10 AM: 69.9% on time from 868 flights
- 11 AM: 69.9% on time from 248 flights
- 12 PM: 75.7% on time from 502 flights
- 1 PM: 68.7% on time from 507 flights
- 2 PM: 70.4% on time from 486 flights
- 3 PM: 68.8% on time from 452 flights
- 4 PM: 69.4% on time from 184 flights
- 5 PM: 67.3% on time from 810 flights
- 6 PM: 61.0% on time from 257 flights
- 7 PM to 10 PM: too few flights to score
- 11 PM: 72.3% on time from 1,085 flights
Why DEN → MIA 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 → MIA. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DEN → MIA, at 39.7%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 76.5% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 63.4%.
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 | 2,712 | 71.7% | 0.44% | -2 min | 8.8% |
| American Airlines | 2,694 | 75.6% | 0.93% | -8 min | 8.5% |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,180 | 65.8% | 1.10% | 2 min | 11.0% |
| Southwest Airlines | 944 | 66.5% | 0.64% | 4 min | 10.7% |
United Airlines flew 36.0% of the 7,530 flights listed.
American Airlines arrived on time 9.8 percentage points more often than Frontier 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| F91280 Frontier Airlines | 11:25 PM | 637 | 71.0% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 8.9 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 71.5%
- Feb: 81.2%
- Mar: 69.3%
- Apr: 77.6%
- May: 73.6%
- Jun: 61.9%
- Jul: 58.6%
- Aug: 59.3%
- Sep: 76.2%
- Oct: 82.1%
- Nov: 82.3%
- Dec: 71.6%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 23.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 56.1% from 219 flights
- August 2023: 67.5% from 205 flights
- September 2023: 76.6% from 128 flights
- October 2023: 77.7% from 149 flights
- November 2023: 84.8% from 192 flights
- December 2023: 68.1% from 229 flights
- January 2024: 61.4% from 234 flights
- February 2024: 75.2% from 219 flights
- March 2024: 62.1% from 278 flights
- April 2024: 77.0% from 213 flights
- May 2024: 67.8% from 210 flights
- June 2024: 56.9% from 210 flights
- July 2024: 56.1% from 216 flights
- August 2024: 49.7% from 152 flights
- September 2024: 78.9% from 124 flights
- October 2024: 88.3% from 174 flights
- November 2024: 78.8% from 199 flights
- December 2024: 77.0% from 230 flights
- January 2025: 76.3% from 268 flights
- February 2025: 79.6% from 250 flights
- March 2025: 77.8% from 287 flights
- April 2025: 70.8% from 219 flights
- May 2025: 76.6% from 215 flights
- June 2025: 60.5% from 198 flights
- July 2025: 59.6% from 207 flights
- August 2025: 58.1% from 182 flights
- September 2025: 73.9% from 157 flights
- October 2025: 79.7% from 172 flights
- November 2025: 83.3% from 204 flights
- December 2025: 69.7% from 243 flights
- January 2026: 75.5% from 253 flights
- February 2026: 88.3% from 240 flights
- March 2026: 67.5% from 279 flights
- April 2026: 86.0% from 194 flights
- May 2026: 76.7% from 180 flights
- June 2026: 69.3% from 179 flights
- July 2026: 63.3% from 185 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 74.4% against 73.3% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,693 DEN → MIA 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