Route profile
MCI→DEN
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Kansas City to Denver, 533 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 53% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 13,213 flights. How this is calculated
MCI → DEN arrives on time 78.2% of the time; the return trip, DEN → MCI, arrives on time 76.7% of the time.
MCI → DEN spends 26.2 minutes on the ground on a 533-mile trip: 17.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MCI and 8.5 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 94% of 2,692 comparable routes.
SkyWest Airlines arrived on time 90.0% of the time, against 69.9% 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 MCI → DEN flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
MCI → DEN cancelled 118 of 13,213 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 112. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 65.3% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 172 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 118 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
77 cancellations, 65.3% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
32 cancellations, 27.1% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
9 cancellations, 7.6% of the total.
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 MCI → DEN; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
43 min late
against a median of 3 min early
Percentiles over 13,213 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DEN after arriving from MCI.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.2% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.5% | 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 0.89% of the time and diverts 0.20% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 13,068 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 13,213 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MCI → DEN flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 91.6% of the time, against 62.1% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 29.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 91.5% on time from 321 flights
- 6 AM: 94.2% on time from 1,752 flights
- 7 AM: 91.4% on time from 248 flights
- 8 AM: 84.7% on time from 664 flights
- 9 AM: 75.6% on time from 1,389 flights
- 10 AM: 91.3% on time from 440 flights
- 11 AM: 85.4% on time from 945 flights
- 12 PM: 87.4% on time from 375 flights
- 1 PM: 84.2% on time from 1,667 flights
- 2 PM: 82.2% on time from 569 flights
- 3 PM: 65.1% on time from 536 flights
- 4 PM: 59.6% on time from 330 flights
- 5 PM: 61.6% on time from 1,799 flights
- 6 PM: 69.6% on time from 413 flights
- 7 PM: 62.7% on time from 735 flights
- 8 PM: 70.1% on time from 652 flights
- 9 PM: 72.0% on time from 285 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why MCI → DEN 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
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for MCI → DEN. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on MCI → DEN, at 39.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 91.6% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 62.1%.
How this route holds up in bad weather
July 2023 – July 2026
The harder-hit end is DEN, where the flight lands. Its figure counts departures from DEN, so it says more about how that airport copes than about this route. Bad weather cancels 4.0 times the normal rate at DEN against 2.5 times at MCI. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: MCI 3.0% against 1.2%, 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 | MCI | DEN |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled in bad weather | 3.0% | 2.8% |
| Cancelled in normal hours | 1.2% | 0.7% |
| Arrived on time, bad weather | 74.7% | 51.5% |
| Arrived on time, normal hours | 81.9% | 78.8% |
| Departures in bad weather | 16,876 | 92,610 |
Of the carriers on this route, Southwest Airlines (3.0% cancelled against 3.5% for the other carriers at MCI) cancelled the fewest departures from MCI in bad weather and SkyWest Airlines (5.9% cancelled against 3.6% for the other carriers at MCI) the most. One more carrier flies this route but has too few bad-weather departures from MCI to compare.
This route’s airlines in bad weather at MCI
All departures from MCI| Airline | Bad-weather departures | Cancelled | Other carriers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 8,162 | 3.0%below the others | 3.5% |
| United Airlines | 1,232 | 2.8%about level | 2.8% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 597 | 5.9%above the others | 3.6% |
These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from MCI and DEN, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from MCI on every route.
Weather source and limits. In full: MCI (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.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 7,448 | 76.3% | 1.03% | -2 min | 7.6% |
| United Airlines | 4,322 | 81.2% | 0.76% | -5 min | 6.0% |
| Frontier Airlines | 819 | 69.9% | 0.73% | -3 min | 13.5% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 624 | 90.0% | 0.32% | -12 min | 4.7% |
Southwest Airlines flew 56.4% of the 13,213 flights listed.
SkyWest Airlines arrived on time 20.1 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.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 4.9 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.3%
- Feb: 80.8%
- Mar: 83.8%
- Apr: 76.0%
- May: 75.1%
- Jun: 69.9%
- Jul: 71.4%
- Aug: 74.8%
- Sep: 82.4%
- Oct: 79.7%
- Nov: 85.0%
- Dec: 83.1%
June is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 15.1 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 68.3% from 386 flights
- August 2023: 77.7% from 409 flights
- September 2023: 84.4% from 348 flights
- October 2023: 79.2% from 384 flights
- November 2023: 86.2% from 357 flights
- December 2023: 87.3% from 371 flights
- January 2024: 77.6% from 358 flights
- February 2024: 83.6% from 333 flights
- March 2024: 89.8% from 362 flights
- April 2024: 77.2% from 347 flights
- May 2024: 77.4% from 362 flights
- June 2024: 74.2% from 377 flights
- July 2024: 77.5% from 371 flights
- August 2024: 80.6% from 364 flights
- September 2024: 86.2% from 349 flights
- October 2024: 87.0% from 369 flights
- November 2024: 84.3% from 348 flights
- December 2024: 88.9% from 334 flights
- January 2025: 81.5% from 296 flights
- February 2025: 75.1% from 277 flights
- March 2025: 83.3% from 321 flights
- April 2025: 71.3% from 332 flights
- May 2025: 67.8% from 365 flights
- June 2025: 58.8% from 379 flights
- July 2025: 61.8% from 387 flights
- August 2025: 65.7% from 369 flights
- September 2025: 76.7% from 361 flights
- October 2025: 73.5% from 393 flights
- November 2025: 84.6% from 352 flights
- December 2025: 72.8% from 337 flights
- January 2026: 85.3% from 302 flights
- February 2026: 82.9% from 295 flights
- March 2026: 77.9% from 339 flights
- April 2026: 79.5% from 338 flights
- May 2026: 79.9% from 381 flights
- June 2026: 76.1% from 420 flights
- July 2026: 77.4% from 440 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.4% against 76.9% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 13,213 MCI → 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
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