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Thanksgiving & Christmas Flight Delays at DEN: Denver International Airport

Over the last four Thanksgiving travel weeks (2022–2025, Tuesday before through Sunday after), 21.0% of flights that left Denver International Airport (Denver, CO) arrived at least 15 minutes late and 0.3% were cancelled. In the rest of November the same airport had 18.0% late and 1.1% cancelled, so Thanksgiving week had 3.0 points more late arrivals. The best day was Thanksgiving Day (10.5% late); the worst was Sat after (30.4% late).

21.0%late arrivals, Thanksgiving week

0.3%cancelled, Thanksgiving week

28.6%late arrivals, Dec 20–31

5.0%cancelled, Dec 20–31

Which day of Thanksgiving week is best at DEN?

Day	Flights (4 yrs)	Late (15+ min)	Cancelled	Avg dep. delay (min)
Tue before	3,440	14.0%	0.3%	8.7
Wed before	3,467	21.8%	0.1%	10.1
Thanksgiving Day	1,910	10.5%	0.0%	7.2
Fri after	3,181	22.0%	0.3%	11.9
Sat after	3,370	30.4%	0.6%	19.2
Sun after	3,575	23.0%	0.5%	18.3

Pooled over 2022–2025. Thanksgiving 2026 is Thursday, Nov 26, so the window is Tue Nov 24 – Sun Nov 29. Individual days have fewer flights, so small differences are noise.

Year by year at DEN

Year	Thanksgiving week late	Thanksgiving week cancelled	Rest of Nov. late	Dec 20–31 late	Dec 20–31 cancelled
2022	13.9%	0.3%	24.5%	51.2%	20.2%
2023	28.2%	0.2%	12.3%	22.9%	0.6%
2024	19.3%	0.2%	21.9%	22.7%	0.6%
2025	22.4%	0.6%	13.5%	24.5%	0.5%

Single years can be dominated by one storm or airline meltdown; look at the range, not just the average. Dec 20–31, 2022 includes the late-December 2022 winter storm and airline disruptions nationwide.

Christmas week (Dec 20–31) at DEN

Across 2022–2025, 28.6% of flights from DEN arrived 15+ minutes late and 5.0% were cancelled during Dec 20–31, compared with 19.4% late and 0.6% cancelled from Dec 1–19 (+9.2 pts late arrivals).

Airlines at DEN, Thanksgiving week

Airline (flights it operated)	Flights (4 yrs)	Late	Cancelled	Dec 20–31 late
Southwest	6,061	22.0%	0.2%	35.5%
United Airlines	5,988	19.4%	0.2%	25.8%
SkyWest *	3,789	21.8%	0.8%	23.0%
Frontier	1,548	23.1%	0.5%	28.1%
Delta Air Lines	708	17.0%	0.3%	26.0%
American Airlines	521	21.8%	0.2%	28.1%

* Regional airline that mostly flies under another airline’s brand (for example American Eagle, Delta Connection, United Express), so the ticket you bought may not match the operator. Airlines with fewer than 200 flights in the window are omitted.

Why flights from DEN were late (Thanksgiving week)

Cause category (BTS)	Share of delay minutes
Airline (crew, maintenance, cleaning…)	38.0%
Extreme weather	5.7%
National Aviation System (air traffic, volume)	21.8%
Security	0.0%
Late-arriving aircraft	34.5%

Share of reported delay minutes on flights that arrived 15+ minutes late. “Extreme weather” is only a narrow category; many weather-related delays are counted under National Aviation System or late-arriving aircraft. Categories are assigned by airlines to BTS rules.

Source: BTS Airline On-Time Performance data, flights departing DEN operated by airlines that report to BTS. “Late” = arrived 15 or more minutes after schedule (the DOT definition), counted among flights that were not cancelled or diverted. Computed by Holiday Delay Odds; see methodology.