Sacramento, CA · departure reliability

SMF

Sacramento International

Departures: 57,160
Period: June 2025 to May 2026
Carriers: 8
US rank: #35 by volume

Terminal building and aircraft stands at a US airport

Sacramento

Sacramento International lands a B+, 5 points better than the national rate of 77.4%. 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 57,160 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 3,494 at 91.2% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the eight carriers covered here at 91.2% on time across 3,494 flights.

On time

82.2%

Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination

Avg delay

58 min

Across delayed flights only

Cancelled

0.68%

National rate is 1.80%

Best carrier

Delta

91.2% on time here

These figures cover 57,000 flights between June 2025 and May 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 77.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 542 flights means less than a ten-point one.

On-time performance by carrier departing SMF
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	32,217	80.5%	49 min	0.47%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	9,454	83.8%	69 min	0.81%	B+
United Airlines	4,338	85.9%	66 min	0.60%	A+
American Airlines	3,690	82.1%	93 min	1.63%	B
Delta Air Lines	3,494	91.2%	87 min	0.94%	A+
Alaska Airlines	2,184	81.4%	48 min	0.87%	B+
Hawaiian Airlines	643	82.7%	72 min	0.93%	B+
Frontier Airlines	542	77.5%	73 min	2.03%	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 82.2%.

Busiest routes from SMF by flight volume
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SMF to LAX · Los Angeles	5,602	86.3%	68 min	0.45%	A+
SMF to SAN · San Diego	5,182	74.1%	50 min	0.98%	C+
SMF to SEA · Seattle	4,439	82.1%	49 min	0.34%	B+
SMF to LAS · Las Vegas	4,380	79.9%	58 min	0.59%	B+
SMF to DEN · Denver	3,827	81.8%	57 min	0.42%	B+
SMF to PHX · Phoenix	3,712	81.6%	64 min	0.51%	B+
SMF to BUR · Burbank	2,679	85.2%	52 min	1.90%	A
SMF to SNA · Santa Ana	2,319	84.3%	43 min	0.60%	B+
SMF to SLC · Salt Lake City	2,156	88.2%	76 min	0.60%	A+
SMF to ONT · Ontario	2,110	85.0%	54 min	0.24%	A+
SMF to PDX · Portland	1,985	82.0%	53 min	0.35%	B+
SMF to LGB · Long Beach	1,917	85.7%	50 min	0.31%	A+
SMF to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	1,671	79.6%	90 min	2.39%	B
SMF to SFO · San Francisco	1,399	66.8%	68 min	1.72%	C
SMF to ORD · Chicago	1,307	76.1%	73 min	0.99%	B+
SMF to ATL · Atlanta	1,009	92.0%	88 min	1.59%	A
SMF to BOI · Boise	851	80.5%	45 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to HNL · Honolulu	730	79.4%	55 min	0.14%	B+
SMF to IAH · Houston	677	89.7%	82 min	0.30%	A+
SMF to MDW · Chicago	666	86.1%	35 min	0.15%	A+
SMF to DAL · Dallas	661	75.0%	48 min	0.61%	B+
SMF to GEG · Spokane	657	78.4%	50 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to MSP · Minneapolis	590	92.5%	79 min	0.68%	A+
SMF to KOA · Kailua-Kona	521	89.2%	52 min	0.19%	A+
SMF to PSP · Palm Springs	508	85.3%	56 min	0.20%	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–8am12,248 flights92.5%
8am–11am10,645 flights88.0%
11am–2pm10,511 flights82.3%
2pm–5pm8,927 flights73.7%
5pm–8pm7,917 flights73.7%
8pm–5am6,912 flights75.4%

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 92.5% of the time, against 73.7% for the evening 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.

Across the year

When SMF runs late

Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 57,160 flights. The strip shows how much of SMF's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.February best, June worst

June is the worst month at 78.8% 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.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 86.0% on time and Friday the weakest at 79.4%. 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 46% of the 584,000 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.

Late-arriving aircraft
46%
Carrier
33%
National Airspace System
18%
Extreme weather
3%
Security
0%

46% 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 584,000 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 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 92.5% on time here.

Cancellations are rare at 0.68%, below the national 1.80% 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.

5.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.2%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route are the about an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.

57,160 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: avoid the 5pm–8pm departure. It runs 73.7% on time against 92.5% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 19 points is the largest single thing you control here. Delta Air Lines is the strongest operator if the fares are close.

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 17.8% of the 57,160 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% 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 3,494 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 77.5%, 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 92.5% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 73.7%, 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 78.8% 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.

Where to go next

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures