Airport month record

SMFJUL

Sacramento International in July 2025

Departures: 5,494
Month: July 2025
National, same month: 71.1%
Carriers: 10

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

SMF in July lands a B+, 8 points better than the national rate of 71.1%. 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 5,494 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 969 at 86.0% on time.

SkyWest Airlines is the most reliable of the four carriers covered here at 86.0% on time across 969 flights.

On time

78.9%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 5,436 completed departures

Avg delay

63 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.69%

Nationally in July: 2.45%

Whole year

82.1%

SMF across all twelve months

These figures cover 5,494 departures from Sacramento International in July 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

July next to SMF's other months

Against SMF's own year, July ran 3 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 82.1%, which makes it number eleven of twelve months, best first.

SMF month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025 (this page)	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	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 July

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 29 points, against 18 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,153 flights93.5%
8am–11am945 flights88.3%
11am–2pm912 flights80.9%
2pm–5pm895 flights67.8%
5pm–8pm855 flights71.2%
8pm–5am734 flights64.1%

Scale runs 55% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 64.1% on time, against 93.5% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 1,153 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 82.0% on time and Thursday the weakest at 74.1%. 8 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at SMF in July

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 86.0% of the time; United Airlines manages 68.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 395 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at SMF in July 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	2,998	77.2%	55 min	0.50%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	969	86.0%	65 min	0.41%	A+
American Airlines	405	77.3%	92 min	1.23%	B
United Airlines	395	68.5%	57 min	1.01%	C
Delta Air Linesthin sample	356	89.9%	50 min	0.00%	A+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	124	78.7%	57 min	1.61%	B
Hawaiian Airlinesthin sample	93	88.0%	153 min	1.08%	A
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	62	41.7%	138 min	3.23%	F−
Spirit Airlinesthin sample	61	87.9%	92 min	4.92%	A−
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	31	79.3%	70 min	6.45%	B−

The spread between SkyWest and United is 18 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 18 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of SMF in July

Routes from SMF in July 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SMF to LAX · Los Angeles	512	86.9%	51 min	0.39%	A+
SMF to SAN · San Diego	465	72.1%	54 min	0.22%	C+
SMF to SEA · Seattle	455	80.8%	57 min	0.44%	B+
SMF to LAS · Las Vegas	452	78.1%	74 min	1.11%	B
SMF to DEN · Denver	384	70.1%	60 min	1.04%	C
SMF to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	315	79.2%	75 min	0.32%	B+
SMF to BUR · Burbankthin sample	238	88.4%	53 min	2.10%	A
SMF to PDX · Portlandthin sample	215	74.8%	60 min	0.47%	C+
SMF to SNA · Santa Anathin sample	209	84.8%	38 min	2.39%	B
SMF to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	204	87.3%	68 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to ONT · Ontariothin sample	179	87.2%	56 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to LGB · Long Beachthin sample	171	86.5%	38 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	164	74.1%	106 min	2.44%	C
SMF to ORD · Chicagothin sample	123	51.7%	52 min	0.81%	F+
SMF to SFO · San Franciscothin sample	114	76.1%	57 min	0.88%	B+
SMF to ATL · Atlantathin sample	88	86.2%	40 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to BOI · Boisethin sample	84	75.0%	44 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to GEG · Spokanethin sample	84	78.6%	62 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to MDW · Chicagothin sample	80	85.9%	40 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to HNL · Honoluluthin sample	62	78.7%	109 min	1.61%	B
SMF to OGG · Kahuluithin sample	62	82.3%	107 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to DAL · Dallasthin sample	62	73.3%	74 min	0.00%	C+
SMF to AUS · Austinthin sample	62	75.8%	62 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to IAH · Houstonthin sample	61	80.3%	58 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	60	91.7%	45 min	0.00%	A+

Delay causes

What held SMF up in July

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 49% of the 72,000 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
49%
Carrier
33%
National Airspace System
17%
Extreme weather
1%
Security
0%

49% 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 72,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 49 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 72,229 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.69%, below the national 2.45% 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.

7.1% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 12.1%. 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 July

For a July trip through SMF: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 5am–8am departures held up best at 93.5% on time, and with 7.1% 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 August82.7%
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