Airport month record

SMFAUG

Sacramento International in August 2025

Departures: 5,089
Month: August 2025
National, same month: 77.4%
Carriers: 10

Historical statistics for August 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s August. For today’s conditions at SMF, see live FAA status.

SMF in August lands a B+, 5 points better than the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in six arrives 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 5,089 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 875 at 83.8% on time.

SkyWest Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 83.8% on time across 875 flights.

On time

82.7%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 5,045 completed departures

Avg delay

58 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.53%

Nationally in August: 1.08%

Whole year

82.1%

SMF across all twelve months

These figures cover 5,089 departures from Sacramento International in August 2025. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.

Against the year

August next to SMF's other months

Against SMF's own year, August ran level with the twelve-month rate of 82.1%, which makes it number six of twelve months, best first. Either side of it, July ran 78.9% on time and September 84.7%, so this month sits in line with its neighbours.

SMF month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	5,494	78.9%	63 min	0.69%	B+
August 2025 (this page)	5,089	82.7%	58 min	0.53%	B+
September 2025	4,804	84.7%	56 min	0.35%	B+
October 2025	4,937	81.5%	54 min	0.38%	B+
November 2025	4,662	81.8%	57 min	1.78%	B
December 2025	4,531	79.2%	59 min	0.75%	B+
January 2026	4,130	85.0%	67 min	1.33%	A
February 2026	3,935	85.3%	58 min	0.25%	A+
March 2026	4,630	84.2%	61 min	0.91%	B+
April 2026	4,672	83.8%	50 min	0.41%	B+
May 2026	4,945	81.8%	57 min	0.36%	B+
June 2026	4,900	78.0%	52 min	0.51%	B+

Departure window

The best time of day to leave SMF in August

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 20 points, against 2 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,042 flights92.9%
8am–11am1,007 flights88.0%
11am–2pm945 flights83.1%
2pm–5pm804 flights75.7%
5pm–8pm762 flights72.8%
8pm–5am529 flights77.0%

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 92.9% of the time, against 72.8% for the evening window. That is 20 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 1,042 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 87.5% on time and Friday the weakest at 77.8%. 10 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at SMF in August

The three carriers here are closely matched: 2 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.

Carriers at SMF in August 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	2,754	82.5%	46 min	0.36%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	875	83.8%	71 min	0.00%	B+
United Airlines	386	82.3%	61 min	1.30%	B
American Airlinesthin sample	360	79.4%	105 min	1.39%	B
Delta Air Linesthin sample	345	90.9%	64 min	0.58%	A+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	114	72.3%	45 min	1.75%	C
Hawaiian Airlinesthin sample	93	86.7%	41 min	1.08%	A
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	62	77.0%	61 min	1.61%	B
Spirit Airlinesthin sample	61	78.3%	75 min	1.64%	B
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	39	69.2%	60 min	0.00%	C+

No carrier stands out. SkyWest tops the table at 83.8%, 2 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of SMF in August

Routes from SMF in August 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SMF to LAX · Los Angeles	470	87.4%	91 min	0.21%	A+
SMF to SAN · San Diego	443	76.7%	51 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to LAS · Las Vegas	431	82.3%	59 min	0.23%	B+
SMF to SEA · Seattle	426	77.3%	49 min	0.47%	B+
SMF to DEN · Denverthin sample	352	79.0%	51 min	1.42%	B
SMF to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	264	85.9%	88 min	0.38%	A+
SMF to BUR · Burbankthin sample	231	87.6%	48 min	1.73%	A
SMF to SNA · Santa Anathin sample	209	88.3%	37 min	0.96%	A+
SMF to PDX · Portlandthin sample	191	87.9%	36 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	189	85.7%	68 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to ONT · Ontariothin sample	178	89.8%	46 min	1.12%	A
SMF to LGB · Long Beachthin sample	162	83.9%	48 min	0.62%	B+
SMF to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	157	76.3%	56 min	2.55%	B
SMF to ORD · Chicagothin sample	120	66.7%	79 min	0.00%	C+
SMF to SFO · San Franciscothin sample	113	68.1%	64 min	0.00%	C+
SMF to ATL · Atlantathin sample	82	91.2%	61 min	1.22%	A
SMF to MDW · Chicagothin sample	78	88.2%	27 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to BOI · Boisethin sample	74	82.4%	35 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to HNL · Honoluluthin sample	62	87.1%	34 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to CLT · Charlottethin sample	61	88.3%	306 min	1.64%	A
SMF to GEG · Spokanethin sample	60	78.3%	36 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	60	98.3%	46 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to IAH · Houstonthin sample	60	81.4%	62 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to DAL · Dallasthin sample	53	67.9%	36 min	0.00%	C+
SMF to KOA · Kailua-Konathin sample	44	90.9%	70 min	0.00%	A+

Delay causes

What held SMF up in August

Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 50,000 reported delay minutes.

Late-arriving aircraft
42%
Carrier
38%
National Airspace System
18%
Extreme weather
2%
Security
0%

42% 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 50,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 22 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 50,108 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.53%, below the national 1.08% 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 4.6% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.2% 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.

What to do with this

Flying from SMF in August

For a August trip through SMF: expect 82.7% on time and 0.53% cancelled, going by August 2025. The 5am–8am window was the strongest part of the day.

Sacramento International (SMF), the whole year
SMF in July78.9%
SMF in September84.7%
SMF in October81.5%
SMF in November81.8%
SMF in December79.2%
SMF in January85.0%
SMF in February85.3%
SMF in March84.2%
SMF in April83.8%
SMF in May81.8%
SMF in June78.0%

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures