Route profile
PIT→DEN
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Pittsburgh to Denver, 1,290 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 79% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,335 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
PIT → DEN arrives on time 81.9% of the time; the return trip, DEN → PIT, arrives on time 73.5% of the time, an 8.4-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
PIT → DEN spends 24.1 minutes on the ground on a 1,290-mile trip: 13.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PIT and 10.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at DEN.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where PIT to DEN differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PIT to DEN is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 10 AM: 92.1% arrive on time, 11.1 points ahead of the 81.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9.4 points.
PIT to DEN struggles most at 6 PM: 60.5% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 8.2 points behind the 68.7% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 8.1 points.
PIT to DEN holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 83.1% on time to their 74.4%, a 8.7 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 8.3 points.
March is kinder to PIT to DEN than to routes of similar length: 87.2% on time against 76.7%, 10.5 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9.3 points.
United Airlines does better on PIT to DEN than on its routes of similar length: 85.3% on time here, 81.2% there, 4.1 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 5.4 points.
PIT to DEN against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 10 AM departures | 92.1% | routes of similar length | 81.0% | +11.1 pts | 404 here, 97,773 there |
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 60.5% | routes of similar length | 68.7% | −8.2 pts | 387 here, 114,489 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 83.1% | routes of similar length | 74.4% | +8.7 pts | 752 here, 258,931 there |
| Month: March | 87.2% | routes of similar length | 76.7% | +10.5 pts | 367 here, 154,061 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 85.3% | routes of similar length | 81.2% | +4.1 pts | 2,550 here, 274,524 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 1,290 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
34 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 5,335 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DEN after arriving from PIT.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 34% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.6% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.2% | 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 0.58% of the time and diverts 0.17% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,295 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 34 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,335 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PIT → DEN flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 90.8% of the time, against 61.8% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 29.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 93.0% on time from 533 flights
- 6 AM: 91.4% on time from 255 flights
- 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 88.9% on time from 1,133 flights
- 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 92.1% on time from 404 flights
- 11 AM: 86.2% on time from 182 flights
- 12 PM: 87.6% on time from 177 flights
- 1 PM: 75.8% on time from 121 flights
- 2 PM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 78.5% on time from 1,186 flights
- 5 PM: 71.8% on time from 254 flights
- 6 PM: 60.5% on time from 389 flights
- 7 PM: 61.1% on time from 267 flights
- 8 PM: 66.7% on time from 152 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why PIT → 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for PIT → DEN. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on PIT → DEN, at 37.1%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 90.8% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 61.8%.
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 | 2,571 | 85.3% | 0.54% | -9 min | 4.5% |
| Southwest Airlines | 2,536 | 78.7% | 0.55% | -4 min | 6.4% |
| Frontier Airlines | 228 | 78.2% | 1.32% | -7 min | 11.6% |
United Airlines flew 48.2% of the 5,335 flights listed.
United Airlines arrived on time 7.1 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.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA1765 United Airlines | 8:30 AM | 909 | 90.2% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 6.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 79.5%
- Feb: 81.1%
- Mar: 87.2%
- Apr: 84.1%
- May: 76.5%
- Jun: 74.2%
- Jul: 74.5%
- Aug: 79.4%
- Sep: 89.5%
- Oct: 87.3%
- Nov: 89.6%
- Dec: 83.1%
June is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 15.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 65.8% from 150 flights
- August 2023: 78.4% from 163 flights
- September 2023: 87.4% from 153 flights
- October 2023: 81.2% from 138 flights
- November 2023: 89.9% from 149 flights
- December 2023: 94.3% from 159 flights
- January 2024: 85.4% from 124 flights
- February 2024: too few flights to score (108)
- March 2024: 89.9% from 133 flights
- April 2024: 77.4% from 146 flights
- May 2024: 76.7% from 164 flights
- June 2024: 84.7% from 177 flights
- July 2024: 81.9% from 186 flights
- August 2024: 81.4% from 178 flights
- September 2024: 94.3% from 175 flights
- October 2024: 89.8% from 167 flights
- November 2024: 84.0% from 125 flights
- December 2024: 80.0% from 136 flights
- January 2025: too few flights to score (110)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (97)
- March 2025: 90.1% from 121 flights
- April 2025: 84.1% from 126 flights
- May 2025: 75.0% from 136 flights
- June 2025: 67.3% from 170 flights
- July 2025: 74.0% from 185 flights
- August 2025: 78.3% from 177 flights
- September 2025: 86.2% from 167 flights
- October 2025: 89.8% from 178 flights
- November 2025: 93.7% from 158 flights
- December 2025: 73.2% from 139 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (106)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (92)
- March 2026: 81.2% from 121 flights
- April 2026: too few flights to score (117)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (119)
- June 2026: 69.1% from 139 flights
- July 2026: 74.5% from 146 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 81.8% against 80.7% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,335 PIT → 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