Route reliability record
SMF→LAX
Sacramento to Los Angeles
- Flights
- 5,717
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 373 mi
- Carriers
- 5
This route earns an A+. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 8 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about an hour. That rests on 5,717 SMF to LAX flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 3,558 at 89.9% on time.
Best time to fly SMF to LAX: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.8% of the time and Wednesday flights 90.6%, against 85.6% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 8 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 83 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
85.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 5,691 completed flights
Avg delay
67 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.44%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
SkyWest
89.9% on time across 3,558 flights
These figures cover 5,717 flights between September 2025 and August 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.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on SMF to LAX
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 89.9% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 77.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,660 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 55 | 92.7% | 31 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| United Airlinesthin sample | 202 | 91.6% | 72 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 3,558 | 89.9% | 87 min | 0.39% | A+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,660 | 77.1% | 48 min | 0.30% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 242 | 72.5% | 62 min | 2.48% | C |
The spread between SkyWest and Southwest is 13 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 13 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on SMF to LAX
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Sacramento to Los Angeles
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 4 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. SMF → LAXSacramento to Los Angeles | SkyWest Airlines | 89.5% | 89.9% | 0.39% | 8pm–5am, Wed | OO 3812 14:08 |
| 2. SMF → LGBSacramento to Long Beach | Southwest Airlines | 85.6% | 85.8% | 0.27% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 3. SMF → BURSacramento to Burbank | Southwest Airlines | 83.8% | 85.2% | 1.66% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 4. SMF → ONTSacramento to Ontario | Southwest Airlines | 83.8% | 84.0% | 0.28% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 5. SMF → SNASacramento to Santa Ana | Southwest Airlines | 83.6% | 83.9% | 0.31% | 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 14 points, against 13 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,342 flights91.8%
- 8am–11am966 flights89.6%
- 11am–2pm777 flights88.4%
- 2pm–5pm907 flights83.6%
- 5pm–8pm1,159 flights77.9%
- 8pm–5am566 flights78.9%
Scale runs 70% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.8% of the time, against 77.9% for the evening window. That is 14 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 1,342 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter SMF to LAX 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 SMF to LAX, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.8% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 77.9%, a wide gap of 13.9 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.8%
- 8–11am89.6%
- 11am–2pm88.4%
- 2–5pm83.6%
- 5–8pm77.9%
- 8pm–5am78.9%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 5,717 flights. The strip shows how much of this route's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.
July is the worst month at 81.4% on time, 7 points below September, the best at 88.2%. 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. August was the busiest month here, with 544 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 90.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 81.2%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 45% of the 55,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 11%Extreme weather
- 8%National Airspace System
- 0%Security
Extreme weather accounts for 11% of delay minutes, well above the single-digit share typical across the system. Weather delays are lumpy: they arrive as whole bad days rather than as a steady drag, so the monthly strip above is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 6%, so this operation carries roughly 1.9 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 54,674 reported delay minutes.
45% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 55,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 4 to one.
Cancellations are rare at 0.44%, 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
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.4% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% 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.
At 373 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 84.8% on time across 5,708 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 5,717 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 LAX after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: avoid the 5pm–8pm departure. It runs 77.9% on time against 91.8% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 14 points is the largest single thing you control here. SkyWest Airlines is the strongest operator if the fares are close. 5,691 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SMF to LAX questions
How often is SMF to LAX delayed?
About one flight in seven arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 14.4% of the 5,717 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on SMF to LAX?
SkyWest Airlines leads at 89.9% on time across 3,558 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 77.1%, a gap of 13 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 SMF to LAX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.8% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 77.9%, 14 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 July delays on SMF to LAX?
July is the weakest month at 81.4% on time, compared with 88.2% in September. Across the year that is 7 points between the best and worst months. The seasonal swing is modest enough that it should not decide when you travel.
Related
Where to go next
- LAX to SMF — the return legseparate record
- Sacramento International (SMF) delay statistics
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- United Airlines on SMF to LAX91.6%
- SkyWest Airlines on SMF to LAX89.9%
- Southwest Airlines on SMF to LAX77.1%
- Frontier Airlines on SMF to LAX72.5%
- SMF to SAN, a related route69.8%
- SFO to LAX, a related route70.9%
- SMF to SEA, a related route83.0%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record92.7%
- United Airlines on-time record91.6%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record89.9%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
Direction matters. SMF to LAX and LAX to SMF are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.