Carrier route record
AAORD→SMF
American Airlines · Chicago to Sacramento
- Flights
- 356
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 26%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on ORD to SMF draws a D. Roughly one flight in three arrives at least 15 minutes late, and the typical late arrival is about an hour behind schedule. Build slack into anything you connect to. That rests on 356 flights, with a median arrival 4 minutes late.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so American on ORD to SMF runs 16 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 157 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
61.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 346 completed flights
Avg delay
62 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.25%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
67.3%
Every carrier on ORD to SMF, 1,347 flights
These figures cover 356 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 14.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
American against every carrier on ORD to SMF
American flew 356 of the 1,347 flights on ORD to SMF, about 26% of it. Its 61.6% on time is 6 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 67.3%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 69.4% to American at 61.6%.
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 991 | 69.4% | 65 min | 1.41% | C |
| American Airlines (this page)thin sample | 356 | 61.6% | 62 min | 2.25% | D |
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Departure window
When American runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 43 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am47 flights87.2%
- 11am–2pm180 flights67.8%
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm22 flights—
- 8pm–5am107 flights44.6%
Scale runs 35% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 44.6% on time, against 87.2% for the 8am–11am 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 180 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on ORD to SMF through the year
- Jul–Sep 202530 flights83.3%
- Oct–Dec 202531 flights73.3%
- Jan–Mar 202648 flights45.7%
- Apr–Jun 2026165 flights58.4%
- Jul–Sep 202682 flights64.6%
Scale runs 35% to 90%.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 61.6% on time across 356 flights.
American on ORD to SMF did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 83.3% on time and its weakest Jan–Mar 2026 at 45.7%, a swing of 38 points on roughly 71 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 72.7% on time and Thursday the weakest at 52.8%, a spread of 20 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on ORD to SMF runs when it is late
The 133 late arrivals split 37 under half an hour, 45 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 51 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early73 flights21.1%
- Within 15 min140 flights40.5%
- 15–29 min late37 flights10.7%
- 30–59 min late45 flights13.0%
- 1–2 hours late38 flights11.0%
- 2+ hours late13 flights3.8%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 346 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
22 of 137 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 16% of them. In the other direction, 18 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at SMF.
The worst days
Worst days for American on ORD to SMF
The latest arrival of the period was on 27 July 2026, 8 hours 4 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as extreme weather. The five worst days are spread across July, March, April and June, with no single month standing out.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 27 July 2026 | 8 hours 4 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 10 March 2026 | 4 hours 6 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 28 April 2026 | 3 hours 37 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 3 April 2026 | 3 hours | Carrier |
| 27 June 2026 | 2 hours 58 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 8,256 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 48%Late-arriving aircraft
- 30%Carrier
- 15%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
48% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 8,256 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 to one. The split is drawn from 8,256 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 87.2% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.25% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.56%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
14.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
At 1,781 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 74.0% on time across 357 flights, 12 points above this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 12 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 356 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking American on ORD to SMF
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 356 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 61.6% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 346 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- ORD to SMF, every carrier
- American on SMF to ORD, the return leg
- United Airlines on ORD to SMF69.4%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Chicago O'Hare International (ORD) delay statistics
- Sacramento International (SMF) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.