DENVER (KDVR) — It’s been a rough year for the record travel demand that swept the U.S.
Travelers boarded aircrafts in droves in 2022 following two years of travel and personal restrictions. Pent-up demand clashed with airline and airport worker shortages, leading to a worldwide snag in timely departures and arrivals.
As the nation’s and the world’s third-busiest airport, Denver International Airport is seeing decade records for both.
The Denver airport has had more canceled flights to date this year than any of the last 10 except in 2020 when worldwide travel screeched to a halt.
To date, there have been 3,554 canceled arrivals and 3,398 canceled departures. This is down from 2020, when there were over 10,000 canceled arrivals and departures, but has not come down to pre-pandemic levels.
Flying out of Denver is likelier to set travelers back than flying in. The number of late flights has been worse with departures than arrivals.
To date, 21,144 Denver arrivals were late, second only to the year 2014.
The number of late departures, though, skyrocketed. Over 30,000 of Denver’s outbound flights have been late this year, more than twice as many as in 2021.