Airport month record

SMFJAN

Sacramento International in January 2026

Departures: 4,130
Month: January 2026
National, same month: 79.2%
Carriers: 7

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

SMF in January 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 6 points better than the national rate of 79.2%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about an hour. That rests on 4,130 flights, of which Southwest Airlines flew 2,347 at 85.1% on time.

Set against the rest of the country, SMF's January record is 6 points better than the US average of 79.2%. That gap is worth roughly 58 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.

On time

85.0%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,066 completed departures

Avg delay

67 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.33%

Nationally in January: 4.71%

Whole year

82.1%

SMF across all twelve months

These figures cover 4,130 departures from Sacramento International in January 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

January next to SMF's other months

Against SMF's own year, January ran 3 points better than the twelve-month rate of 82.1%, which makes it number two of twelve months, best first. Cancellations are where January stands out: 1.33% of scheduled departures were called off, 2.0 times the airport's rate across the year. Either side of it, December ran 79.2% on time and February 85.3%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse 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	4,531	79.2%	59 min	0.75%	B+
January 2026 (this page)	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 January

Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 4,130 flights.

5am–8am967 flights88.7%
8am–11am800 flights83.7%
11am–2pm820 flights84.2%
2pm–5pm665 flights84.5%
5pm–8pm514 flights81.7%
8pm–5am364 flights85.7%

Scale runs 75% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The early departures do better, though not dramatically: 88.7% on time for the 5am–8am window against 81.7% for 5pm–8pm. Worth taking if the schedule allows, not worth an extra connection. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 967 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 92.4% on time and Saturday the weakest at 78.1%. 14 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at SMF in January

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 January 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	2,347	85.1%	52 min	0.51%	A+
SkyWest Airlines	678	82.8%	94 min	2.36%	B
United Airlinesthin sample	308	87.3%	73 min	0.65%	A+
American Airlinesthin sample	267	84.6%	108 min	7.49%	B−
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	247	85.4%	44 min	0.00%	A+
Delta Air Linesthin sample	233	89.5%	89 min	1.72%	A
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	50	75.5%	117 min	2.00%	B

No carrier stands out. Southwest tops the table at 85.1%, 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 January

Routes from SMF in January 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SMF to LAX · Los Angeles	421	85.1%	111 min	0.95%	A+
SMF to SAN · San Diego	375	76.6%	55 min	2.13%	B
SMF to SEA · Seattlethin sample	309	88.3%	49 min	0.65%	A+
SMF to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	299	86.1%	56 min	0.67%	A+
SMF to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	292	82.8%	56 min	0.34%	B+
SMF to DEN · Denverthin sample	262	84.0%	54 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to BUR · Burbankthin sample	188	87.6%	45 min	0.53%	A+
SMF to SNA · Santa Anathin sample	174	90.8%	56 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to LGB · Long Beachthin sample	162	90.7%	86 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to PDX · Portlandthin sample	160	85.6%	56 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	156	87.7%	96 min	1.28%	A
SMF to ONT · Ontariothin sample	155	85.2%	52 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	131	82.1%	121 min	10.69%	B−
SMF to SFO · San Franciscothin sample	117	75.0%	106 min	4.27%	B−
SMF to ATL · Atlantathin sample	86	97.6%	19 min	2.33%	A
SMF to BOI · Boisethin sample	67	86.6%	27 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to ORD · Chicagothin sample	67	77.6%	47 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to HNL · Honoluluthin sample	62	77.4%	57 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to PSP · Palm Springsthin sample	56	85.5%	58 min	1.79%	A
SMF to IAH · Houstonthin sample	53	92.5%	176 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to KOA · Kailua-Konathin sample	44	84.1%	73 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to DAL · Dallasthin sample	41	82.1%	43 min	2.44%	B
SMF to GEG · Spokanethin sample	40	92.5%	55 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	34	73.5%	55 min	0.00%	C+
SMF to OGG · Kahuluithin sample	34	85.3%	26 min	0.00%	A+

Delay causes

What held SMF up in January

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 41,000 reported delay minutes.

Late-arriving aircraft
41%
Carrier
28%
National Airspace System
17%
Extreme weather
14%

Extreme weather accounts for 14% of delay minutes, well above the single-digit share typical across the system. Weather delays are lumpy: they arrive as whole bad days rather than as a steady drag, so the comparison with the other months below is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 10%, so this operation carries roughly 1.4 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 40,914 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 1.33% against a national 4.71%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.22%.

Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.6% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 7.6% 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 January

For a January trip through SMF: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 85.0% on time with 1.33% 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 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