Airport month record

SMFSEP

Sacramento International in September 2025

Departures: 4,804
Month: September 2025
National, same month: 83.4%
Carriers: 10

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

SMF in September earns a B+. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it about a point better than the national rate of 83.4%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about an hour. That rests on 4,804 flights, of which United Airlines flew 373 at 88.2% on time.

United Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 88.2% on time across 373 flights.

On time

84.7%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,778 completed departures

Avg delay

56 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.35%

Nationally in September: 0.51%

Whole year

82.1%

SMF across all twelve months

These figures cover 4,804 departures from Sacramento International in September 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

September next to SMF's other months

Against SMF's own year, September ran 3 points better than the twelve-month rate of 82.1%, which makes it number three of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for SMF in September, at 0.35% against 0.68% across the year. Either side of it, August ran 82.7% on time and October 81.5%, 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 (this page)	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 September

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 16 points, against 4 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am995 flights92.9%
8am–11am1,003 flights87.8%
11am–2pm967 flights86.8%
2pm–5pm738 flights76.9%
5pm–8pm700 flights77.2%
8pm–5am401 flights79.1%

Scale runs 70% 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 76.9% for the afternoon window. That is 16 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 1,003 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 91.4% on time and Thursday the weakest at 77.7%. 14 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at SMF in September

The three carriers here are closely matched: 4 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 September 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	2,672	84.0%	50 min	0.34%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	811	84.8%	59 min	0.25%	B+
United Airlines	373	88.2%	64 min	0.27%	A+
Delta Air Linesthin sample	328	93.9%	59 min	0.30%	A+
American Airlinesthin sample	286	86.4%	119 min	0.70%	A+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	94	68.1%	34 min	0.00%	C+
Hawaiian Airlinesthin sample	91	76.7%	60 min	1.10%	B
Spirit Airlinesthin sample	60	91.7%	29 min	0.00%	A+
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	37	67.6%	72 min	0.00%	C+
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	32	87.5%	62 min	0.00%	A+

No carrier stands out. United tops the table at 88.2%, 4 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 September

Routes from SMF in September 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SMF to LAX · Los Angeles	460	88.2%	56 min	0.22%	A+
SMF to SAN · San Diego	416	80.0%	63 min	0.96%	B+
SMF to LAS · Las Vegas	407	81.9%	64 min	0.74%	B+
SMF to SEA · Seattle	398	79.1%	39 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to DEN · Denverthin sample	344	81.6%	43 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	241	86.8%	102 min	2.07%	A
SMF to BUR · Burbankthin sample	228	85.5%	50 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to SNA · Santa Anathin sample	206	87.9%	48 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	180	87.8%	54 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to ONT · Ontariothin sample	177	89.3%	54 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to PDX · Portlandthin sample	164	83.5%	58 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to LGB · Long Beachthin sample	159	90.6%	50 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	122	84.0%	110 min	0.82%	B+
SMF to SFO · San Franciscothin sample	118	65.3%	53 min	0.00%	C+
SMF to ORD · Chicagothin sample	117	81.9%	42 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to MDW · Chicagothin sample	78	83.3%	47 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to ATL · Atlantathin sample	77	98.7%	266 min	1.30%	A
SMF to BOI · Boisethin sample	73	86.3%	47 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to HNL · Honoluluthin sample	60	75.0%	48 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to CLT · Charlottethin sample	60	93.3%	56 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to IAH · Houstonthin sample	58	96.6%	408 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to GEG · Spokanethin sample	56	82.1%	33 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	55	96.4%	43 min	0.00%	A+
SMF to DAL · Dallasthin sample	51	78.4%	35 min	0.00%	B+
SMF to KOA · Kailua-Konathin sample	43	88.4%	73 min	0.00%	A+

Delay causes

What held SMF up in September

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 41,000 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
48%
Carrier
29%
National Airspace System
21%
Extreme weather
2%
Security
0%

48% 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 41,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 19 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 40,944 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.35%, below the national 0.51% 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 3.7% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 5.4% 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 September

For a September trip through SMF: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 84.7% on time with 0.35% 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 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