Airport month record

SMFDEC

Sacramento International in December 2025

Departures: 4,531
Month: December 2025
National, same month: 73.2%
Carriers: 8

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

SMF in December lands a B+, 6 points better than the national rate of 73.2%. About one flight in five 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 4,531 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 709 at 82.7% on time.

Set against the rest of the country, SMF's December record is 6 points better than the US average of 73.2%. That gap is worth roughly 60 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.

On time

79.2%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,485 completed departures

Avg delay

59 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.75%

Nationally in December: 1.55%

Whole year

82.1%

SMF across all twelve months

These figures cover 4,531 departures from Sacramento International in December 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

December next to SMF's other months

Against SMF's own year, December ran 3 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 82.1%, which makes it number ten of twelve months, best first. Either side of it, November ran 81.8% on time and January 85.0%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better stretch.

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	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 (this page)	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 December

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 21 points, against 6 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,014 flights89.5%
8am–11am905 flights85.4%
11am–2pm841 flights77.3%
2pm–5pm666 flights72.2%
5pm–8pm598 flights69.0%
8pm–5am507 flights72.2%

Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.5% of the time, against 69.0% for the evening window. That is 21 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 1,014 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 84.7% on time and Friday the weakest at 73.7%. 11 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at SMF in December

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 82.7% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 76.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,728 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at SMF in December 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	2,728	76.3%	48 min	0.59%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	709	82.7%	80 min	0.71%	B+
United Airlinesthin sample	311	84.1%	72 min	0.64%	B+
American Airlinesthin sample	277	87.0%	83 min	0.36%	A+
Delta Air Linesthin sample	259	85.7%	121 min	2.32%	A
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	104	74.3%	51 min	2.88%	C
Hawaiian Airlinesthin sample	93	84.9%	69 min	0.00%	B+
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	48	80.9%	72 min	2.08%	B

SkyWest leads Southwest by 6 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of SMF in December

Routes from SMF in December 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SMF to LAX · Los Angeles	431	85.3%	57 min	0.46%	A+
SMF to SAN · San Diego	399	66.7%	56 min	1.50%	C
SMF to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	352	80.4%	48 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	346	82.6%	69 min	0.58%	B+
SMF to DEN · Denverthin sample	302	74.6%	52 min	0.66%	C+
SMF to SEA · Seattlethin sample	295	78.2%	52 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to BUR · Burbankthin sample	228	80.6%	47 min	3.51%	B−
SMF to SNA · Santa Anathin sample	198	81.8%	38 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to ONT · Ontariothin sample	179	80.2%	48 min	0.56%	B+
SMF to LGB · Long Beachthin sample	173	81.3%	63 min	0.58%	B+
SMF to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	166	84.8%	92 min	0.60%	B+
SMF to PDX · Portlandthin sample	137	70.1%	46 min	0.00%	C+
SMF to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	137	82.5%	84 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to SFO · San Franciscothin sample	106	65.4%	108 min	1.89%	C
SMF to ATL · Atlantathin sample	88	88.1%	155 min	3.41%	A−
SMF to BOI · Boisethin sample	77	76.6%	45 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to ORD · Chicagothin sample	75	78.7%	65 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to DAL · Dallasthin sample	62	69.4%	39 min	0.00%	C+
SMF to HNL · Honoluluthin sample	62	79.0%	73 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	61	81.4%	86 min	3.28%	B−
SMF to IAH · Houstonthin sample	46	89.1%	90 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to GEG · Spokanethin sample	46	67.4%	39 min	0.00%	C+
SMF to KOA · Kailua-Konathin sample	45	91.1%	41 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to PSP · Palm Springsthin sample	44	68.2%	45 min	0.00%	C+
SMF to OGG · Kahuluithin sample	42	90.5%	51 min	0.00%	A+

Delay causes

What held SMF up in December

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 45% of the 55,000 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
45%
Carrier
32%
National Airspace System
17%
Extreme weather
6%
Security
0%

45% 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 55,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 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 54,547 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.75%, below the national 1.55% 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.

5.8% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 10.0%. 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 last about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from SMF in December

For a December trip through SMF: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 5am–8am departures held up best at 89.5% on time, and with 5.8% of arrivals an hour or more late, a connection here deserves more slack than the same trip in February would.

Sacramento International (SMF), the whole year
SMF in July78.9%
SMF in August82.7%
SMF in September84.7%
SMF in October81.5%
SMF in November81.8%
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