Airport month record

SMFFEB

Sacramento International in February 2026

Departures: 3,935
Month: February 2026
National, same month: 80.2%
Carriers: 7

Historical statistics for February 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s February. For today’s conditions at SMF, see live FAA status.

SMF in February earns an A+. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 5 points better than the national rate of 80.2%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about an hour. That rests on 3,935 flights, of which Southwest Airlines flew 2,319 at 84.4% on time.

Set against the rest of the country, SMF's February record is 5 points better than the US average of 80.2%. That gap is worth roughly 51 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.

On time

85.3%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,916 completed departures

Avg delay

58 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.25%

Nationally in February: 2.25%

Whole year

82.1%

SMF across all twelve months

These figures cover 3,935 departures from Sacramento International in February 2026. 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

February next to SMF's other months

Against SMF's own year, February ran 3 points better than the twelve-month rate of 82.1%, which makes it the best of the twelve months in the data. Cancellations were unusually low for SMF in February, at 0.25% against 0.68% across the year. Either side of it, January ran 85.0% on time and March 84.2%, 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	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 (this page)	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 February

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 19 points, against 2 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am928 flights93.1%
8am–11am740 flights93.5%
11am–2pm783 flights85.0%
2pm–5pm610 flights77.0%
5pm–8pm555 flights74.9%
8pm–5am319 flights78.6%

Scale runs 65% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 93.5% of the time, against 74.9% 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. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 928 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Sunday is the strongest day at 88.7% on time and Monday the weakest at 81.0%. 8 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at SMF in February

The two 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 February 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	2,319	84.4%	49 min	0.30%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	622	82.1%	83 min	0.16%	B+
United Airlinesthin sample	290	90.7%	88 min	0.00%	A+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	232	84.5%	44 min	0.00%	B+
American Airlinesthin sample	221	90.0%	40 min	0.00%	A+
Delta Air Linesthin sample	211	93.3%	104 min	0.95%	A+
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	40	87.5%	92 min	0.00%	A+

No carrier stands out. Southwest tops the table at 84.4%, 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 February

Routes from SMF in February 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SMF to LAX · Los Angeles	402	85.1%	60 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to SAN · San Diego	383	76.9%	41 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	288	84.4%	45 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to SEA · Seattlethin sample	282	90.1%	57 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	277	86.3%	60 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to DEN · Denverthin sample	260	88.0%	74 min	0.77%	A+
SMF to BUR · Burbankthin sample	182	90.9%	76 min	2.75%	A
SMF to SNA · Santa Anathin sample	166	87.3%	37 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to LGB · Long Beachthin sample	155	85.2%	43 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to ONT · Ontariothin sample	152	84.9%	61 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	149	87.8%	86 min	0.67%	A+
SMF to PDX · Portlandthin sample	144	88.9%	75 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	112	87.3%	39 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to SFO · San Franciscothin sample	112	64.0%	127 min	0.89%	D+
SMF to ATL · Atlantathin sample	78	94.9%	49 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to BOI · Boisethin sample	70	78.6%	34 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to HNL · Honoluluthin sample	56	78.6%	25 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to ORD · Chicagothin sample	56	91.1%	168 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to PSP · Palm Springsthin sample	52	88.0%	54 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to IAH · Houstonthin sample	51	98.0%	15 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to DAL · Dallasthin sample	46	87.0%	64 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to GEG · Spokanethin sample	43	79.1%	53 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to KOA · Kailua-Konathin sample	40	82.5%	21 min	0.00%	B+

Delay causes

What held SMF up in February

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 45% of the 33,000 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
33%
National Airspace System
19%
Extreme weather
3%
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 33,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 16 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 33,354 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.25%, below the national 2.25% 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 3.9% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 6.5% 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 February

For a February trip through SMF: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 85.3% on time with 0.25% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.

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 December79.2%
SMF in January85.0%
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