Sacramento, CA · departure reliability
SMF
Sacramento International
- Departures
- 56,729
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Carriers
- 8
- US rank
- #35 by volume
Sacramento
Sacramento International lands a B+, 5 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in six arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 56,729 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 3,437 at 91.2% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the eight carriers covered here at 91.2% on time across 3,437 flights.
Key figures
On time
82.1%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
57 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.68%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
Delta
91.2% on time here
These figures cover 57,000 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 6 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of SMF
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 91.2% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 77.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 588 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 32,072 | 80.2% | 49 min | 0.45% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 9,236 | 83.7% | 68 min | 0.82% | B+ |
| United Airlines | 4,363 | 86.4% | 65 min | 0.69% | A+ |
| American Airlines | 3,571 | 82.6% | 95 min | 1.74% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 3,437 | 91.2% | 83 min | 0.93% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 2,378 | 82.7% | 48 min | 0.84% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 588 | 77.2% | 69 min | 1.53% | B |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 553 | 82.4% | 71 min | 1.08% | B |
The spread between Delta and Frontier is 14 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 14 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Busiest routes out of SMF
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from SMF, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 82.1%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SMF to LAX · Los Angeles | 5,637 | 86.0% | 66 min | 0.44% | A+ |
| SMF to SAN · San Diego | 5,182 | 73.3% | 49 min | 0.93% | C+ |
| SMF to SEA · Seattle | 4,416 | 82.7% | 47 min | 0.34% | B+ |
| SMF to LAS · Las Vegas | 4,238 | 80.1% | 58 min | 0.59% | B+ |
| SMF to DEN · Denver | 3,834 | 82.5% | 54 min | 0.42% | B+ |
| SMF to PHX · Phoenix | 3,668 | 81.5% | 63 min | 0.52% | B+ |
| SMF to BUR · Burbank | 2,644 | 85.3% | 53 min | 1.82% | A |
| SMF to SNA · Santa Ana | 2,304 | 84.2% | 43 min | 0.48% | B+ |
| SMF to SLC · Salt Lake City | 2,158 | 87.6% | 72 min | 0.65% | A+ |
| SMF to ONT · Ontario | 2,111 | 84.7% | 52 min | 0.24% | B+ |
| SMF to PDX · Portland | 1,977 | 82.3% | 54 min | 0.40% | B+ |
| SMF to LGB · Long Beach | 1,893 | 85.6% | 49 min | 0.26% | A+ |
| SMF to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 1,646 | 80.7% | 90 min | 2.73% | B |
| SMF to SFO · San Francisco | 1,378 | 64.6% | 68 min | 1.74% | D |
| SMF to ORD · Chicago | 1,324 | 76.9% | 78 min | 1.06% | B |
| SMF to ATL · Atlanta | 1,009 | 92.7% | 92 min | 1.39% | A |
| SMF to BOI · Boise | 855 | 80.1% | 47 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SMF to HNL · Honolulu | 730 | 80.8% | 53 min | 0.14% | B+ |
| SMF to IAH · Houston | 677 | 89.5% | 72 min | 0.15% | A+ |
| SMF to MDW · Chicago | 672 | 85.5% | 35 min | 0.30% | A+ |
| SMF to DAL · Dallas | 661 | 74.5% | 47 min | 0.61% | C+ |
| SMF to GEG · Spokane | 633 | 77.1% | 50 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SMF to MSP · Minneapolis | 590 | 92.7% | 79 min | 0.68% | A+ |
| SMF to KOA · Kailua-Kona | 521 | 88.2% | 51 min | 0.19% | A+ |
| SMF to PSP · Palm Springs | 513 | 86.5% | 57 min | 0.19% | A+ |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave SMF
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 19 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am12,187 flights92.4%
- 8am–11am10,556 flights88.1%
- 11am–2pm10,487 flights81.8%
- 2pm–5pm8,716 flights73.9%
- 5pm–8pm7,823 flights74.0%
- 8pm–5am6,960 flights75.2%
Scale runs 65% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.4% of the time, against 73.9% for the afternoon window. That is 19 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 12,187 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
When SMF runs late
Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 56,729 flights. The strip shows how much of SMF's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.
June is the worst month at 78.0% on time, 7 points below February, the best at 85.3%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. July was the busiest month here, with 5,494 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 86.3% on time and Friday the weakest at 79.1%. 7 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why SMF gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 575,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 47%Late-arriving aircraft
- 32%Carrier
- 18%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
47% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 575,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 15 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 575,264 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 92.4% on time here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.68%, below the national 1.81% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.9% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
56,729 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
What to do with this
Flying out of SMF
Put together: take the 5am–8am departure, avoid June if the dates are flexible, and if two carriers are within a few dollars of each other, Delta is the one with the record behind it. None of that guarantees an on-time arrival; it moves the odds by 19 points, which is the most any booking decision can do. 56,209 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SMF delay questions
How often is Sacramento (SMF) delayed?
About one flight in six arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 17.9% of the 56,729 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Sacramento (SMF)?
Delta Air Lines leads at 91.2% on time across 3,437 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 77.2%, a gap of 14 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on Sacramento (SMF)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.4% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 73.9%, 19 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are June delays on Sacramento (SMF)?
June is the weakest month at 78.0% on time, compared with 85.3% in February. Across the year that is 7 points between the best and worst months. The seasonal swing is modest enough that it should not decide when you travel.
Related
Where to go next
- SMF to LAX — Los Angeles86.0%
- SMF to SAN — San Diego73.3%
- SMF to SEA — Seattle82.7%
- SMF to LAS — Las Vegas80.1%
- SMF to DEN — Denver82.5%
- SMF to PHX — Phoenix81.5%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record80.2%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record83.7%
- United Airlines on-time record86.4%
- American Airlines on-time record82.6%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.