Route profile
DEN→OAK
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Denver to Oakland, 957 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 29% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,504 flights. How this is calculated
DEN → OAK arrives on time 69.2% of the time; the return trip, OAK → DEN, arrives on time 78.3% of the time, a 9.1-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DEN → OAK spends 21.6 minutes on the ground on a 957-mile trip: 16.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DEN and 5.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at OAK.
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 98% of 4,023 comparable routes.
88.8% on time for 5–9 AM departures, against 52.1% for 9 PM–5 AM.
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 OAK differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DEN to OAK struggles most at 7 PM: 50.8% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 16 points behind the 66.8% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 17 points.
DEN to OAK is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 AM: 95.0% arrive on time, 4.3 points ahead of the 90.7% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 4.2 points.
Thursday is the day DEN to OAK slips furthest against routes of similar length, 66.0% on time where they average 76.2%, 10.2 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 10.8 points.
In June, DEN to OAK runs 17.1 points below routes of similar length, 54.7% on time to 71.8%. Against all other routes the gap is 18 points.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on DEN to OAK arrive on time 69.2% of the time, 7 points below the 76.2% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 8.3 points.
DEN to OAK against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 50.8% | routes of similar length | 66.8% | −16.0 pts | 297 here, 197,914 there |
| Hour: 6 AM departures | 95.0% | routes of similar length | 90.7% | +4.3 pts | 259 here, 224,538 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 66.0% | routes of similar length | 76.2% | −10.2 pts | 791 here, 451,234 there |
| Month: June | 54.7% | routes of similar length | 71.8% | −17.1 pts | 475 here, 247,402 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 69.2% | routes of similar length | 76.2% | −7.0 pts | 5,473 here, 761,982 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 957 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
52 min late
against a median of 3 min late
Percentiles over 5,504 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at OAK after arriving from DEN.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 54% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 30% | High risk |
| 60 min | 18% | High risk |
| 90 min | 8.2% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.0% | 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 0.53% of the time and diverts 0.04% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,473 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 5,504 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DEN → OAK flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.8% of the time, against 52.1% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 36.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 93.4% on time from 166 flights
- 6 AM: 95.0% on time from 261 flights
- 7 AM: 82.1% on time from 337 flights
- 8 AM: 88.5% on time from 374 flights
- 9 AM: 85.8% on time from 318 flights
- 10 AM: 75.8% on time from 327 flights
- 11 AM: 77.8% on time from 158 flights
- 12 PM: 76.6% on time from 275 flights
- 1 PM: 76.1% on time from 367 flights
- 2 PM: 61.9% on time from 334 flights
- 3 PM: 66.1% on time from 338 flights
- 4 PM: 63.5% on time from 170 flights
- 5 PM: 61.8% on time from 166 flights
- 6 PM: 57.2% on time from 401 flights
- 7 PM: 50.8% on time from 301 flights
- 8 PM: 53.7% on time from 445 flights
- 9 PM: 53.1% on time from 375 flights
- 10 PM: 51.2% on time from 391 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why DEN → OAK 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 → OAK. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DEN → OAK, at 50.8%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 88.8% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 52.1%.
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 | 5,504 | 69.2% | 0.53% | 3 min | 8.4% |
Other ways to fly Denver to San Francisco
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DEN→SFO Denver to San Francisco | 17,109 | 67.8% | 0.69% | 0 min | 50 |
| DEN→OAK this route Denver to Oakland | 5,504 | 69.2% | 0.53% | 3 min | 57 |
DEN → OAK is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 69.2% on time, against 67.8% for DEN → SFO.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 7.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 76.1%
- Feb: 68.9%
- Mar: 73.3%
- Apr: 73.4%
- May: 64.6%
- Jun: 54.7%
- Jul: 60.4%
- Aug: 62.6%
- Sep: 75.9%
- Oct: 74.7%
- Nov: 79.3%
- Dec: 72.8%
June is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 24.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 52.9% from 176 flights
- August 2023: 62.8% from 165 flights
- September 2023: 70.1% from 168 flights
- October 2023: 71.5% from 165 flights
- November 2023: 83.6% from 171 flights
- December 2023: 79.4% from 180 flights
- January 2024: 68.5% from 152 flights
- February 2024: 62.5% from 137 flights
- March 2024: 69.7% from 156 flights
- April 2024: 79.3% from 164 flights
- May 2024: 71.5% from 173 flights
- June 2024: 65.1% from 175 flights
- July 2024: 71.3% from 181 flights
- August 2024: 62.7% from 154 flights
- September 2024: 86.1% from 144 flights
- October 2024: 84.7% from 150 flights
- November 2024: 73.7% from 138 flights
- December 2024: 78.0% from 141 flights
- January 2025: 77.8% from 126 flights
- February 2025: 68.9% from 120 flights
- March 2025: 84.4% from 141 flights
- April 2025: 74.0% from 150 flights
- May 2025: 63.1% from 158 flights
- June 2025: 50.3% from 155 flights
- July 2025: 53.5% from 159 flights
- August 2025: 62.2% from 143 flights
- September 2025: 72.5% from 138 flights
- October 2025: 68.2% from 148 flights
- November 2025: 79.4% from 130 flights
- December 2025: 58.5% from 137 flights
- January 2026: 83.6% from 122 flights
- February 2026: too few flights to score (112)
- March 2026: 64.8% from 123 flights
- April 2026: 64.8% from 123 flights
- May 2026: 57.0% from 128 flights
- June 2026: 46.9% from 147 flights
- July 2026: 63.2% from 154 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 66.0% against 71.0% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,504 DEN → OAK 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