Carrier route record

OOPHX→SMF

SkyWest Airlines · Phoenix to Sacramento

Flights: 333
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Share of route: 9%
Carriers: 4

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with SkyWest Airlines.

SkyWest on PHX to SMF lands a B+, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. 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 333 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, American Airlines, flew 1,079 at 82.4% on time.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate SkyWest on PHX to SMF from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.

On time

80.1%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 331 completed flights

Avg delay

60 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.30%

National rate is 1.81%

Whole route

80.2%

Every carrier on PHX to SMF, 3,673 flights

These figures cover 333 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 9 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.

Carrier by carrier

SkyWest against every carrier on PHX to SMF

SkyWest flew 333 of the 3,673 flights on PHX to SMF, about 9% of it. Its 80.1% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 80.2%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 85.5% to Southwest at 78.9%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.

The two 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.

On-time performance by carrier on PHX to SMF
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Envoy Airthin sample	112	85.5%	51 min	0.89%	A+
American Airlines	1,079	82.4%	64 min	0.46%	B+
SkyWest Airlines (this page)thin sample	333	80.1%	60 min	0.30%	B+
Southwest Airlines	2,149	78.9%	47 min	0.33%	B+

No carrier stands out. American tops the table at 82.4%, 4 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.

Departure window

When SkyWest runs best on this route

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 22 points, against 4 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am22 flights—
8am–11am—
11am–2pm38 flights94.7%
2pm–5pm228 flights78.3%
5pm–8pm37 flights73.0%
8pm–5am8 flights—

Scale runs 65% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The best window here is not the first bank but the 11am–2pm slot at 94.7% on time, ahead of 5pm–8pm at 73.0%. Where the curve peaks mid-day rather than at dawn, the constraint is usually congestion at one end rather than the aircraft's own rotation. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 228 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

SkyWest on PHX to SMF through the year

Jul–Sep 202521 flights—
Oct–Dec 202571 flights84.5%
Jan–Mar 2026139 flights69.3%
Apr–Jun 2026102 flights88.2%

Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 80.1% on time across 333 flights.

SkyWest on PHX to SMF did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 88.2% on time and its weakest Jan–Mar 2026 at 69.3%, a swing of 19 points on roughly 111 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, Monday is the strongest day at 88.2% on time and Sunday the weakest at 73.6%. 15 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Delay causes

Why SkyWest runs late on this route

One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 57% of the 3,968 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.

Carrier
57%
Late-arriving aircraft
38%
National Airspace System
6%

38% 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 3,968 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 38 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 3,968 reported delay minutes.

The largest share of delay minutes, 57%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 2,258 of the 3,968 delay minutes reported here.

Cancellations are rare at 0.30%, below the national 1.81% 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 costs

7.9% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. 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.

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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.

The return leg runs 79.5% on time across 333 flights, within half a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 333 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 SkyWest on PHX to SMF

Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 333 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 80.1% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 331 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

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