DEN → ORD Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · DENNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:53 UTC

Denver airport profile →

Destination · ORDNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:51 UTC

Chicago airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

56/ 100Fair

Better than 27% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 19,475 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

74.2%

14,248 of 19,202

Cancellation rate

1.02%

198 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-3 min

Average 13.6 min

Severe delays

9.6%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

77 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

19,475

4 carriers

DEN → ORD arrives on time 74.2% of the time; the return trip, ORD → DEN, arrives on time 77.0% of the time, a 2.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

DEN → ORD spends 35.6 minutes on the ground on an 888-mile trip: 18.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DEN and 17.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at ORD.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

Why DEN → ORD flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

DEN → ORD cancelled 198 of 19,475 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 98. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 51.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 193 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Weather51.0%

Airline44.4%

Air traffic4.5%

Security0.0%

Of 198 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

Extreme weather1 in 193

Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.

101 cancellations, 51.0% of the total.

The airline1 in 221

Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.

88 cancellations, 44.4% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 2,164

Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.

9 cancellations, 4.5% of the total.

Security—

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.

198 coded cancellations were recorded on DEN → ORD; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

57 min late

against a median of 3 min early

Arrived an hour or more late9.6%

Typical delay when late77 min

Cancelled1.02%

Landed somewhere else0.39%

DEN → ORD has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 3 min early, but the worst tenth are 60 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 19,475 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at ORD after arriving from DEN.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, DEN → ORD arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	43%	Likely to miss
45 min	25%	High risk
60 min	17%	High risk
90 min	9.4%	Some risk
120 min	6.0%	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 1.02% of the time and diverts 0.39% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 19,202 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 57 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 19,475 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

DEN → ORD flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.7% of the time, against 61.0% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 27.7 percentage points.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (DEN).

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 10.0 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 2.0 points.

On-time arrival rate for DEN to ORD by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM
7 AM–8 AM
8 AM–9 AM
9 AM–10 AM
10 AM–11 AM
11 AM–12 PM
12 PM–1 PM
1 PM–2 PM
2 PM–3 PM
3 PM–4 PM
4 PM–5 PM
5 PM–6 PM
6 PM–7 PM
7 PM–8 PM
8 PM–9 PM

On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time

50–59
60–69
70–79
80–89
90–99

Fewer than 120 flights, not scored

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · On time is arrival within 15 minutes of schedule. Cells round to whole percentages; the table shows one decimal.

No slot is named best or worst: too few reach 500 flights. Departures before 6 AM and after 9 PM (647 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday for DEN to ORD. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM	91.7% on time245 flights	90.0% on time211 flights	91.0% on time203 flights	92.9% on time241 flights	91.0% on time240 flights	89.9% on time218 flights	84.8% on time226 flights
7 AM–8 AM	86.9% on time265 flights	91.0% on time246 flights	90.7% on time259 flights	89.3% on time271 flights	86.6% on time265 flights	85.3% on time240 flights	86.8% on time267 flights
8 AM–9 AM	95 flights, too few to score	105 flights, too few to score	109 flights, too few to score	100 flights, too few to score	96 flights, too few to score	50 flights, too few to score	86 flights, too few to score
9 AM–10 AM	83.2% on time225 flights	81.4% on time213 flights	80.7% on time212 flights	81.0% on time225 flights	78.3% on time224 flights	79.3% on time224 flights	78.4% on time218 flights
10 AM–11 AM	73.5% on time150 flights	80.3% on time123 flights	78.4% on time128 flights	68.3% on time147 flights	75.5% on time148 flights	102 flights, too few to score	76.0% on time126 flights
11 AM–12 PM	83.1% on time200 flights	79.1% on time205 flights	82.4% on time206 flights	76.4% on time200 flights	75.4% on time200 flights	78.7% on time209 flights	71.4% on time210 flights
12 PM–1 PM	75.0% on time126 flights	81.7% on time133 flights	83.2% on time131 flights	77.0% on time125 flights	72.3% on time123 flights	96 flights, too few to score	115 flights, too few to score
1 PM–2 PM	76.4% on time265 flights	75.3% on time255 flights	73.5% on time260 flights	72.4% on time258 flights	72.2% on time260 flights	73.1% on time210 flights	73.0% on time267 flights
2 PM–3 PM	72.4% on time136 flights	63.6% on time124 flights	63.0% on time137 flights	66.7% on time149 flights	57.6% on time146 flights	114 flights, too few to score	61.9% on time148 flights
3 PM–4 PM	68.0% on time155 flights	67.9% on time157 flights	62.2% on time151 flights	61.9% on time148 flights	67.1% on time155 flights	66.4% on time151 flights	67.5% on time157 flights
4 PM–5 PM	62.0% on time218 flights	71.7% on time209 flights	61.5% on time213 flights	59.9% on time219 flights	67.1% on time214 flights	65.2% on time183 flights	57.7% on time226 flights
5 PM–6 PM	64.6% on time216 flights	59.4% on time216 flights	57.5% on time218 flights	55.3% on time216 flights	57.7% on time221 flights	65.0% on time212 flights	50.9% on time225 flights
6 PM–7 PM	35 flights, too few to score	32 flights, too few to score	31 flights, too few to score	36 flights, too few to score	37 flights, too few to score	51 flights, too few to score	39 flights, too few to score
7 PM–8 PM	68.7% on time255 flights	71.2% on time237 flights	69.9% on time247 flights	61.3% on time263 flights	66.8% on time269 flights	74.2% on time187 flights	59.1% on time256 flights
8 PM–9 PM	68.9% on time194 flights	72.1% on time165 flights	84.6% on time169 flights	70.6% on time184 flights	70.8% on time186 flights	71.5% on time175 flights	66.8% on time189 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM88.7%

9 AM–12 PM78.3%

12–3 PM72.3%

3–6 PM62.3%

6–9 PM68.1%

9 PM–5 AM61.0%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why DEN → ORD runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Late-arriving aircraft41.4%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

The airline28.7%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Air traffic control26.1%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Weather3.7%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security0.1%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for DEN → ORD. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DEN → ORD, at 41.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 88.7% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 61.0%.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

Bad weather raises cancellations by a similar amount at both ends of DEN to ORD: 4.0 times the normal rate at DEN and 5.5 times at ORD. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: DEN 2.8% against 0.7%, ORD 6.5% against 1.2%. Flights that did leave DEN in bad weather arrived on time 51.5% of the time, against 78.8% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from DEN and ORD in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	DEN	ORD
Cancelled in bad weather	2.8%	6.5%
Cancelled in normal hours	0.7%	1.2%
Arrived on time, bad weather	51.5%	55.7%
Arrived on time, normal hours	78.8%	77.1%
Departures in bad weather	92,610	104,455

United Airlines (1.5% cancelled against 3.5% for the other carriers at DEN) and Southwest Airlines (2.4% cancelled against 3.1% for the other carriers at DEN) cancelled fewer departures from DEN in bad weather than the other carriers there did in the same months. None of the route’s other carriers was clearly worse.

This route’s airlines in bad weather at DEN

All departures from DEN

Cancellation rates in bad weather at DEN for the airlines that fly DEN to ORD, against the other carriers at DEN in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
United Airlines	30,853	1.5%below the others	3.5%
Southwest Airlines	28,467	2.4%below the others	3.1%
American Airlines	2,591	2.8%about level	2.8%
Frontier Airlines	6,740	3.1%about level	2.8%

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from DEN and ORD, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from DEN on every route.

Weather source and limits. In full: DEN (airlines), ORD, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.

Airlines on this route

Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.

Airlines on this route
Carrier	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Severe
United Airlines	11,167	74.9%	0.90%	-3 min	9.1%
American Airlines	3,735	76.1%	1.39%	-7 min	10.9%
Southwest Airlines	3,615	73.1%	0.86%	-1 min	7.4%
Frontier Airlines	830	61.0%	1.57%	4 min	19.0%

United Airlines flew 57.7% of the 19,347 flights listed.

American Airlines arrived on time 15.1 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.

Flights on this route
Flight	Scheduled	Operations	On time
UA617 United Airlines	1:25 PM	1,077	75.4%
AA2771 American Airlines	7:00 AM	1,053	87.5%
UA2329 United Airlines	9:40 AM	1,016	81.5%

AA2771 (7:00 AM) arrived on time 87.5% of the time, 12.1 points more often than UA617 (1:25 PM) at 75.4%.

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon75.1%

Tue76.5%

Wed75.7%

Thu73.0%

Fri73.1%

Sat75.8%

Sun70.6%

Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 5.9 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

July is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 17.3 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 72.1% against 74.6% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.5 percentage points.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 19,475 DEN → ORD 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

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

DEN airport ORD airport Return direction ORD → DEN

DEN→ORD

Right now

Route reliability

Why DEN → ORD flights are cancelled

Share of cancellations

What each reason means

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By day and hour

By departure window

By departure hour

Why DEN → ORD runs late

How this route holds up in bad weather

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

This route’s airlines in bad weather at DEN

Airlines on this route

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology