LGA → DEN Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · LGANo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:51 UTC

New York airport profile →

Destination · DENNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:53 UTC

Denver 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 14,618 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

76.6%

10,871 of 14,200

Cancellation rate

2.08%

304 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-8 min

Average 6.6 min

Severe delays

8.9%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

77 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

14,618

5 carriers

LGA → DEN arrives on time 76.6% of the time; the return trip, DEN → LGA, arrives on time 74.2% of the time, a 2.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

LGA → DEN spends 32.8 minutes on the ground on a 1,620-mile trip: 23.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at LGA and 9.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at DEN.

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

What stands out

The airline matters unusually much on this route, a wider carrier-to-carrier gap than 92% of 2,692 comparable routes.

United Airlines arrived on time 81.3% of the time, against 62.4% for Frontier Airlines, flying the exact same route.

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 2,692 in the comparison.

Why LGA → DEN flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

LGA → DEN cancelled 304 of 14,618 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 48. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 55.6% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 86 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Weather55.6%

Airline26.6%

Air traffic17.8%

Security0.0%

Of 304 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

Extreme weather1 in 86

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

169 cancellations, 55.6% of the total.

The airline1 in 180

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

81 cancellations, 26.6% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 271

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

54 cancellations, 17.8% 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.

304 coded cancellations were recorded on LGA → DEN; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

52 min late

against a median of 8 min early

Arrived an hour or more late8.9%

Typical delay when late77 min

Cancelled2.08%

Landed somewhere else0.78%

LGA → DEN has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 8 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 14,618 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at DEN after arriving from LGA.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, LGA → DEN arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	37%	Likely to miss
45 min	23%	High risk
60 min	15%	High risk
90 min	8.7%	Some risk
120 min	5.5%	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 2.08% of the time and diverts 0.78% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 14,200 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 14,618 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

LGA → DEN flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.1% of the time, against 63.2% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 24.9 percentage points.

By day and hour

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

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 10.1 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 1.8 points.

On-time arrival rate for LGA to DEN 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

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 after 7 PM (1,430 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 LGA to DEN. 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 time187 flights	94.0% on time153 flights	91.6% on time146 flights	90.4% on time189 flights	88.0% on time194 flights	85.6% on time162 flights	90.3% on time158 flights
7 AM–8 AM	88.4% on time339 flights	87.2% on time376 flights	86.6% on time376 flights	87.1% on time335 flights	83.4% on time329 flights	87.0% on time283 flights	88.9% on time309 flights
8 AM–9 AM	5 flights, too few to score	0 flights, too few to score	0 flights, too few to score	5 flights, too few to score	5 flights, too few to score	56 flights, too few to score	33 flights, too few to score
9 AM–10 AM	88 flights, too few to score	79 flights, too few to score	76 flights, too few to score	88 flights, too few to score	93 flights, too few to score	63 flights, too few to score	41 flights, too few to score
10 AM–11 AM	109 flights, too few to score	108 flights, too few to score	108 flights, too few to score	108 flights, too few to score	108 flights, too few to score	36 flights, too few to score	17 flights, too few to score
11 AM–12 PM	51 flights, too few to score	46 flights, too few to score	49 flights, too few to score	54 flights, too few to score	49 flights, too few to score	46 flights, too few to score	61 flights, too few to score
12 PM–1 PM	84.9% on time262 flights	84.4% on time281 flights	88.5% on time281 flights	85.7% on time259 flights	79.2% on time263 flights	84.2% on time163 flights	87.0% on time209 flights
1 PM–2 PM	98 flights, too few to score	93 flights, too few to score	79 flights, too few to score	90 flights, too few to score	95 flights, too few to score	84 flights, too few to score	96 flights, too few to score
2 PM–3 PM	65.7% on time188 flights	72.3% on time187 flights	72.7% on time194 flights	68.9% on time193 flights	70.7% on time189 flights	74.6% on time133 flights	71.3% on time187 flights
3 PM–4 PM	104 flights, too few to score	94 flights, too few to score	94 flights, too few to score	100 flights, too few to score	102 flights, too few to score	72.3% on time149 flights	96 flights, too few to score
4 PM–5 PM	63.1% on time172 flights	66.0% on time166 flights	65.5% on time168 flights	60.8% on time170 flights	63.6% on time169 flights	71.6% on time120 flights	64.4% on time201 flights
5 PM–6 PM	64.0% on time206 flights	73.1% on time217 flights	69.6% on time216 flights	58.5% on time206 flights	62.6% on time212 flights	33 flights, too few to score	64.8% on time172 flights
6 PM–7 PM	68.3% on time213 flights	67.7% on time211 flights	63.5% on time206 flights	63.9% on time201 flights	69.3% on time206 flights	28 flights, too few to score	63.2% on time214 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM88.1%

9 AM–12 PM83.3%

12–3 PM79.2%

3–6 PM66.9%

6–9 PM65.2%

9 PM–5 AM63.2%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why LGA → DEN runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Late-arriving aircraft38.3%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

The airline30.7%

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

Air traffic control25.1%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Weather5.7%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security0.2%

screening or terminal security incidents

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

Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on LGA → DEN, at 38.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 88.1% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 63.2%.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

Bad weather raises cancellations by a similar amount at both ends of LGA to DEN: 4.1 times the normal rate at LGA and 4.0 times at DEN. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: LGA 9.0% against 2.2%, DEN 2.8% against 0.7%. 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 LGA and DEN in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	LGA	DEN
Cancelled in bad weather	9.0%	2.8%
Cancelled in normal hours	2.2%	0.7%
Arrived on time, bad weather	63.6%	51.5%
Arrived on time, normal hours	80.9%	78.8%
Departures in bad weather	56,339	92,610

Of the carriers on this route, United Airlines (5.2% cancelled against 9.5% for the other carriers at LGA) cancelled the fewest departures from LGA in bad weather and Frontier Airlines (10.6% cancelled against 8.7% for the other carriers at LGA) the most.

This route’s airlines in bad weather at LGA

All departures from LGA

Cancellation rates in bad weather at LGA for the airlines that fly LGA to DEN, against the other carriers at LGA in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
United Airlines	3,159	5.2%below the others	9.5%
Delta Air Lines	10,841	6.5%below the others	9.9%
Southwest Airlines	4,610	7.6%below the others	9.3%
JetBlue	3,007	6.9%below the others	8.3%
Frontier Airlines	864	10.6%above the others	8.7%

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

Weather source and limits. In full: LGA (airlines), DEN, 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	6,265	81.3%	1.47%	-11 min	7.0%
Southwest Airlines	4,282	70.5%	2.48%	-3 min	10.6%
Delta Air Lines	3,174	76.7%	2.58%	-10 min	9.8%
JetBlue	486	78.6%	1.85%	-12 min	6.1%
Frontier Airlines	411	62.4%	3.65%	0 min	15.7%

United Airlines flew 42.9% of the 14,618 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 3.65% of its flights here against 1.47% for United Airlines.

United Airlines arrived on time 18.9 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
DL751 Delta Air Lines	7:25 AM	782	85.0%
DL716 Delta Air Lines	1:59 PM	774	70.7%
DL710 Delta Air Lines	6:00 PM	681	60.9%

DL751 (7:25 AM) arrived on time 85.0% of the time, 24.1 points more often than DL710 (6:00 PM) at 60.9%.

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon76.4%

Tue78.4%

Wed77.4%

Thu74.8%

Fri75.6%

Sat80.0%

Sun74.3%

Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 5.7 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

June is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 18.2 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 71.4% against 76.8% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.4 percentage points.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 14,618 LGA → DEN 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

LGA airport DEN airport Return direction DEN → LGA

LGA→DEN

Right now

Route reliability

What stands out

Why LGA → DEN 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 LGA → DEN 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 LGA

Airlines on this route

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology