United Airlines Denver ground stops on 8 July left the carrier with 738 delays across its network, making it the second most disrupted airline in the United States on the day, behind Southwest Airlines, which surpassed 1,000 delays.
Denver International Airport (DEN) finished Wednesday as the most delayed departure hub in the country, recording 434 departure delays (affecting 39% of all flights) according to FlightAware. Nine flights were also cancelled at the airport.
Two Separate Ground Stops Hit Denver in Succession
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued two ground stops at DEN on Wednesday. The first was triggered by severe thunderstorms that moved through the Denver area following a heat wave. The second was issued separately due to airspace volume constraints. Both halts came in succession, compounding the disruption for airlines operating out of the hub.
The average delay across the two ground stops was roughly 45 minutes. However, the scale of the backlog was considerably larger than that figure suggests. CBS News Colorado reported that around 900 flights were delayed during the nearly four-hour ground stop, underlining the extent to which the weather event cascaded through DEN’s schedule.
DEN topped the national rankings for departure delays on 8 July, ahead of Chicago O’Hare International Airport at 359 delays, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport at 191, Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport at 170, and New York John F. Kennedy Airport at 143.
United Airlines Felt the Sharpest Impact at DEN
Given its hub operations at Denver, United Airlines recorded the highest number of flight delays of any carrier at DEN, with 260. Southwest Airlines was close behind at DEN, posting 232 delays and seven cancellations, the most cancelled flights at the airport on the day.
Across all United Airlines operations on Wednesday, the carrier logged 738 delays and 15 cancellations, placing it second behind Southwest Airlines for both total delays and total cancelled flights system-wide. Southwest’s network-wide delay count reached 1,086, crossing the 1,000 mark. American Airlines recorded 595 delays, SkyWest 526, and Delta Air Lines 505.
Neither United Airlines nor Southwest Airlines updated their travel advisories pages to offer flexible rebooking at DEN in connection with the disruptions.
In total, 5,620 delays were recorded within, into, or out of the United States on 8 July. The United Airlines Denver ground stops were part of a broader week of disruption that had already seen more than 1,000 cancellations system-wide at the start of the week, with ground stops affecting Boston Logan, LaGuardia, JFK, Newark Liberty, and San Francisco International Airport over preceding days. The FAA stoppages had continued into Wednesday across multiple major hubs.
Thursday Outlook Remains Disrupted
As of Thursday morning, 621 delays had been recorded within, into, or out of the United States. United Airlines was carrying 37 delays and four cancellations on Thursday, with further disruption expected to build through the day. DEN itself had 61 delays and one cancellation recorded at that point, following the busy day of ground stops on Wednesday.
United Airlines had not issued any travel alerts for Thursday as of Thursday morning, leaving passengers without formal rebooking flexibility under the carrier’s advisory system.
