Route reliability record
PHX→SMF
Phoenix to Sacramento
- Flights
- 3,606
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 647 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route lands a B+, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 3,606 PHX to SMF flights, of which American Airlines flew 983 at 81.8% on time.
Best time to fly PHX to SMF: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 97.1% of the time and Wednesday flights 83.9%, against 80.0% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
80.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,585 completed flights
Avg delay
56 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.42%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
81.8% on time across 983 flights
These figures cover 3,606 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 6 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on PHX to SMF
The two carriers here are closely matched: 3 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.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 147 | 89.0% | 51 min | 0.68% | A+ |
| American Airlines | 983 | 81.8% | 75 min | 0.51% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 358 | 78.9% | 61 min | 0.56% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 2,118 | 78.8% | 47 min | 0.33% | B+ |
No carrier stands out. American tops the table at 81.8%, 3 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.
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.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Phoenix to Sacramento
Every airline on this route, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time, with its best departure time and most punctual flight number. No nearby airport pair beat these.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. PHX → SMFPhoenix to Sacramento | American Airlines | 81.4% | 81.8% | 0.51% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 2. PHX → SMFPhoenix to Sacramento | Southwest Airlines | 78.5% | 78.8% | 0.33% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 34 points, against 3 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am518 flights97.1%
- 8am–11am780 flights89.3%
- 11am–2pm510 flights83.6%
- 2pm–5pm667 flights77.6%
- 5pm–8pm496 flights69.2%
- 8pm–5am635 flights62.7%
Scale runs 55% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 62.7% on time, against 97.1% 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 780 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PHX to SMF by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On PHX to SMF, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 97.1% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 62.7%, a wide gap of 34.4 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am97.1%
- 8–11am89.3%
- 11am–2pm83.6%
- 2–5pm77.6%
- 5–8pm69.2%
- 8pm–5am62.7%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 100%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 13 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
June is the worst month at 71.9% on time, 13 points below September, the best at 85.2%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. March was the busiest month here, with 355 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 83.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.6%, a spread of 12 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 55% of the 40,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 55%Late-arriving aircraft
- 39%Carrier
- 4%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
55% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 40,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 24 to one. The split is drawn from 39,833 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 39%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 15,000 of the 40,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.42%, below the national 1.89% 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.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
5.8% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so 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.
The 647 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
The return leg runs 80.8% on time across 3,615 flights, within about a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 3,606 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in SMF after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 85.2% on time and June 71.9%, a swing of 13 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 3,585 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PHX to SMF questions
How often is PHX to SMF delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 20.0% of the 3,606 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on PHX to SMF?
American Airlines leads at 81.8% on time across 983 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 78.8%, a gap of 3 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on PHX to SMF?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 97.1% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 62.7%, 34 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are June delays on PHX to SMF?
June is the weakest month at 71.9% on time, compared with 85.2% in September. Across the year that is 13 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- SMF to PHX — the return legseparate record
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- Sacramento International (SMF) delay statistics
- Envoy Air on PHX to SMF89.0%
- American Airlines on PHX to SMF81.8%
- SkyWest Airlines on PHX to SMF78.9%
- Southwest Airlines on PHX to SMF78.8%
- PHX to DEN, a related route76.7%
- LAX to SMF, a related route84.8%
- PHX to LAX, a related route82.1%
- Envoy Air on-time record89.0%
- American Airlines on-time record81.8%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record78.9%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. PHX to SMF and SMF to PHX are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed PHX to SMF’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
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.