DEN → SFO Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · DENNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 08:53 UTC

Denver airport profile →

Destination · SFONo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 08:56 UTC

San Francisco airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

50/ 100Fair

Better than 15% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 17,109 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

67.8%

11,508 of 16,982

Cancellation rate

0.69%

118 cancelled

Median arrival delay

0 min

Average 13.9 min

Severe delays

11.4%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

62 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

17,109

3 carriers

DEN → SFO arrives on time 67.8% of the time; the return trip, SFO → DEN, arrives on time 76.4% of the time, an 8.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

DEN → SFO spends 27.7 minutes on the ground on a 967-mile trip: 19.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DEN and 8.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at SFO.

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

Why DEN → SFO flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

DEN → SFO cancelled 118 of 17,109 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 145. The reason filed most often was the airline, 65.3% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 222 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Airline65.3%

Weather23.7%

Air traffic11.0%

Security0.0%

Of 118 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

The airline1 in 222

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

77 cancellations, 65.3% of the total.

Extreme weather1 in 611

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

28 cancellations, 23.7% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 1,316

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

13 cancellations, 11.0% 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.

118 coded cancellations were recorded on DEN → SFO; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

66 min late

against a median of 0 min early

Arrived an hour or more late11.4%

Typical delay when late62 min

Cancelled0.69%

Landed somewhere else0.05%

DEN → SFO has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 0 min early, but the worst tenth are 66 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 17,109 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at SFO after arriving from DEN.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, DEN → SFO arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	48%	Likely to miss
45 min	31%	Likely to miss
60 min	21%	High risk
90 min	11%	Some risk
120 min	6.4%	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 0.69% of the time and diverts 0.05% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 16,982 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 66 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 17,109 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

DEN → SFO flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 80.3% of the time, against 52.7% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 27.6 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 10.6 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 3.7 points.

On-time arrival rate for DEN to SFO 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
9 PM–10 PM
10 PM–11 PM

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

40–49
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 11 PM (505 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 SFO. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM	92.9% on time184 flights	93.2% on time133 flights	94.6% on time149 flights	95.4% on time151 flights	91.3% on time185 flights	89.2% on time157 flights	95.2% on time127 flights
7 AM–8 AM	66.1% on time176 flights	78.9% on time147 flights	73.6% on time146 flights	66.3% on time192 flights	66.5% on time186 flights	75.3% on time160 flights	75.6% on time207 flights
8 AM–9 AM	63.0% on time137 flights	79.0% on time124 flights	72.0% on time126 flights	58.6% on time141 flights	65.4% on time133 flights	90 flights, too few to score	102 flights, too few to score
9 AM–10 AM	65.7% on time138 flights	62.0% on time143 flights	57.7% on time145 flights	65.2% on time138 flights	65.2% on time137 flights	68.4% on time157 flights	68.7% on time150 flights
10 AM–11 AM	115 flights, too few to score	106 flights, too few to score	106 flights, too few to score	116 flights, too few to score	114 flights, too few to score	108 flights, too few to score	105 flights, too few to score
11 AM–12 PM	62.8% on time239 flights	78.3% on time207 flights	76.6% on time205 flights	62.6% on time241 flights	66.4% on time235 flights	74.2% on time187 flights	70.0% on time190 flights
12 PM–1 PM	30 flights, too few to score	50 flights, too few to score	45 flights, too few to score	28 flights, too few to score	35 flights, too few to score	6 flights, too few to score	21 flights, too few to score
1 PM–2 PM	76.0% on time212 flights	77.4% on time222 flights	74.1% on time224 flights	76.6% on time219 flights	68.4% on time208 flights	79.3% on time203 flights	72.2% on time199 flights
2 PM–3 PM	37 flights, too few to score	25 flights, too few to score	26 flights, too few to score	43 flights, too few to score	35 flights, too few to score	38 flights, too few to score	29 flights, too few to score
3 PM–4 PM	69.5% on time164 flights	74.3% on time184 flights	69.7% on time187 flights	65.6% on time157 flights	61.2% on time169 flights	69.1% on time139 flights	71.0% on time145 flights
4 PM–5 PM	80 flights, too few to score	86 flights, too few to score	80 flights, too few to score	77 flights, too few to score	72 flights, too few to score	77 flights, too few to score	89 flights, too few to score
5 PM–6 PM	66.7% on time205 flights	77.5% on time187 flights	69.7% on time195 flights	57.7% on time197 flights	66.0% on time210 flights	66.2% on time202 flights	61.0% on time190 flights
6 PM–7 PM	65 flights, too few to score	44 flights, too few to score	42 flights, too few to score	58 flights, too few to score	62 flights, too few to score	36 flights, too few to score	57 flights, too few to score
7 PM–8 PM	51.2% on time213 flights	62.4% on time190 flights	59.6% on time189 flights	49.5% on time214 flights	51.2% on time217 flights	56.9% on time203 flights	51.5% on time206 flights
8 PM–9 PM	80 flights, too few to score	64.5% on time126 flights	54.7% on time128 flights	88 flights, too few to score	86 flights, too few to score	89 flights, too few to score	82 flights, too few to score
9 PM–10 PM	55.2% on time231 flights	70.9% on time207 flights	62.1% on time229 flights	48.7% on time231 flights	58.1% on time223 flights	67.0% on time182 flights	58.5% on time174 flights
10 PM–11 PM	59.7% on time191 flights	68.6% on time121 flights	65.8% on time120 flights	62.4% on time184 flights	67.0% on time199 flights	61.1% on time126 flights	52.9% on time249 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM80.3%

9 AM–12 PM69.8%

12–3 PM71.6%

3–6 PM66.8%

6–9 PM52.7%

9 PM–5 AM60.6%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why DEN → SFO runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Air traffic control36.6%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Late-arriving aircraft36.0%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

The airline24.7%

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

Weather2.6%

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 → SFO. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

The harder-hit end is the one the flight leaves from, where a cancellation keeps it from departing at all. Bad weather cancels 4.0 times the normal rate at DEN against 1.7 times at SFO. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: DEN 2.8% against 0.7%, SFO 1.5% against 0.9%. 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 SFO in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	DEN	SFO
Cancelled in bad weather	2.8%	1.5%
Cancelled in normal hours	0.7%	0.9%
Arrived on time, bad weather	51.5%	73.0%
Arrived on time, normal hours	78.8%	79.8%
Departures in bad weather	92,610	36,006

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 SFO, 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%
Frontier Airlines	6,740	3.1%about level	2.8%

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from DEN and SFO, 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), SFO, 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	10,399	73.3%	0.70%	-4 min	9.6%
Southwest Airlines	4,702	56.1%	0.57%	9 min	15.6%
Frontier Airlines	2,008	66.3%	0.90%	0 min	11.2%

United Airlines flew 60.8% of the 17,109 flights listed.

United Airlines arrived on time 17.2 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.

Flights on this route
Flight	Scheduled	Operations	On time
UA1561 United Airlines	11:35 AM	969	73.6%
UA1007 United Airlines	5:59 PM	786	66.9%
F93439 Frontier Airlines	10:29 PM	676	65.3%
UA1812 United Airlines	1:25 PM	655	78.6%

UA1812 (1:25 PM) arrived on time 78.6% of the time, 13.3 points more often than F93439 (10:29 PM) at 65.3%.

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon65.8%

Tue74.6%

Wed70.0%

Thu63.3%

Fri65.9%

Sat70.7%

Sun64.8%

Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 11.3 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

June is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 21.8 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 64.6% against 72.5% in the 12 months before — declining by 7.9 percentage points.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 17,109 DEN → SFO 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 SFO airport Return direction SFO → DEN

DEN→SFO

Right now

Route reliability

Why DEN → SFO 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 → SFO 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