Denver had record passengers in 2025; has 234 non-stop destinations in Q2
Denver welcomed 82.43 million passengers in 2025, which was marginally higher than the prior year. Compared to before the pandemic in 2019, more than 13 million additional passengers have been added.
The Colorado airport has welcomed multiple airlines in recent years, including Air France in 2021 and Aer Lingus, Breeze, Contour, Turkish Airlines and Viva Aerobus in 2024. Not many carriers have pulled out, but Spirit was by far the biggest exit, which occurred in 2024.
The top three airlines have 88% of seats
According to Cirium schedule data, Denver has 12.73 one-way seats in Q2 2026 (April-June), up 2% year-over-year to its highest level yet for those three months. It is the world’s ninth-busiest airport in this sense, and number four in the US.
Denver’s sheer scale is because of three factors. It is a major hub for United (second for seats), Southwest’s most-served airport and Frontier’s second-busiest facility. The trio has 88% of the available capacity.
With 6.25 million one-way seats, United is, of course, comfortably the leading operator. Only Chicago ORD has more capacity (7.41 million). A fifth of the airline’s seats touch Denver. Some 18% of seats are operated by RJs, which rises to 39% when departures are considered instead.
United serves 200 destinations non-stop from Denver in Q2, of which 177 are domestic (including Puerto Rico). A massive 93% of its capacity is domestic. They are in 47 states and territories, with California having the most seats and destinations (17).
Non-stop flights to 234 airports in Q2
With 392,000 one-way seats, up by 5% year-over-year, Phoenix, some 970 kilometres away, is the most-served market. Of course, as this analysis is based on seats, it does not show where passengers go. Many people will connect to another flight in Denver or Phoenix or both. There are 192-weekly one-way flights in mid-April with Southwest (84), United (50), Frontier (33) and American (25)
Compared to Q2 2025, Denver has gained the following destinations. However, it has lost Green Bay, Greensboro, Page, Seattle PAE, Stockton and Taos, although the latter returns in July.
- 25 September 2025: Columbia, MO (United, daily)
- 9 October 2025: Corpus Christi (Frontier, 2-weekly)
- 26 October 2025: Punta Cana (United, daily)
- 26 October 2025: West Palm Beach (United, daily to 2-daily)
- 17 February 2026: Roswell (United, 2-daily)
- 1 March 2026: Carlsbad, NM (Contour, 5-weekly)
- 17 March 2026: Abilene (United, 2-daily)
- 29 March 2026: Carlsbad, CA (United 2-daily)
- 11 April 2026: Santa Rosa (Southwest, weekly to 5-weekly)
- 21 May 2026: Destin-Ft Walton Beach (Allegiant, 2- to 3-weekly)
- 21 May 2026: Fort Dodge (United, daily)
- 23 May 2026: Chattanooga (United, weekly)
- 3 June 2026: Queretaro (Volaris, 2-weekly)
