Route profile
DEN→RSW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Denver to Fort Myers, 1,607 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 60% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,990 flights. How this is calculated
DEN → RSW arrives on time 78.5% of the time; the return trip, RSW → DEN, arrives on time 81.1% of the time, a 2.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DEN → RSW spends 25.7 minutes on the ground on a 1,607-mile trip: 20.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DEN and 5.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at RSW.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where DEN to RSW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DEN to RSW struggles most at 2 PM: 63.1% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 10 points behind the 73.1% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.5 points.
DEN to RSW is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 78.3% arrive on time, 8.1 points ahead of the 70.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 8.5 points.
January is kinder to DEN to RSW than to routes of similar length: 84.9% on time against 78.8%, 6.1 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 5.8 points.
In February, DEN to RSW runs 5.1 points below routes of similar length, 76.4% on time to 81.5%. Against all other routes the gap is 5.1 points.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on DEN to RSW arrive on time 67.8% of the time, 7.8 points below the 75.6% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 9.6 points.
DEN to RSW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 63.1% | routes of similar length | 73.1% | −10.0 pts | 187 here, 88,348 there |
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 78.3% | routes of similar length | 70.2% | +8.1 pts | 414 here, 108,526 there |
| Month: January | 84.9% | routes of similar length | 78.8% | +6.1 pts | 304 here, 115,860 there |
| Month: February | 76.4% | routes of similar length | 81.5% | −5.1 pts | 301 here, 111,043 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 67.8% | routes of similar length | 75.6% | −7.8 pts | 683 here, 345,111 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 1,607 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
43 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 2,990 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at RSW after arriving from DEN.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 38% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.4% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.9% | 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 0.90% of the time and diverts 0.33% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,953 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 43 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,990 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DEN → RSW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 84.1% of the time, against 71.7% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 12.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 82.7% on time from 1,097 flights
- 10 AM: 78.4% on time from 164 flights
- 11 AM: 80.0% on time from 130 flights
- 12 PM: 77.8% on time from 135 flights
- 1 PM: 74.9% on time from 247 flights
- 2 PM: 63.1% on time from 188 flights
- 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 77.5% on time from 210 flights
- 5 PM: 78.3% on time from 419 flights
- 6 PM: 73.1% on time from 137 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why DEN → RSW runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for DEN → RSW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DEN → RSW, at 35.0%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 84.1% of the time and 12–3 PM departures 71.7%.
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 | 2,136 | 82.1% | 0.98% | -7 min | 5.6% |
| Southwest Airlines | 688 | 67.8% | 0.44% | 3 min | 10.0% |
United Airlines flew 75.6% of the 2,824 flights listed.
United Airlines arrived on time 14.3 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA2601 United Airlines | 9:35 AM | 681 | 85.8% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 8.7 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 84.9%
- Feb: 76.4%
- Mar: 73.7%
- Apr: 78.3%
- May: 77.6%
- Jun: 69.9%
- Jul: 71.6%
- Aug to Sep: no data
- Oct: 87.3%
- Nov: 82.9%
- Dec: 80.0%
June is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 17.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (49)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (41)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (31)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (35)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (70)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (97)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (73)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (74)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (119)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (82)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (61)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (40)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (39)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (33)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (36)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (79)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (97)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (114)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (116)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (108)
- March 2025: 80.3% from 142 flights
- April 2025: too few flights to score (91)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (85)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (63)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (62)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (35)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (37)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (91)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (96)
- December 2025: 78.1% from 128 flights
- January 2026: 88.5% from 131 flights
- February 2026: too few flights to score (119)
- March 2026: 71.1% from 154 flights
- April 2026: too few flights to score (104)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (95)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (80)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (83)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.1% against 77.4% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,990 DEN → RSW 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