Carrier route record
AASMF→ORD
American Airlines · Sacramento to Chicago
- Flights
- 357
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 27%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on SMF to ORD sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land close to two hours behind schedule. That rests on 357 flights, with a median arrival 10 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate American on SMF to ORD from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
74.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 346 completed flights
Avg delay
106 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.96%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
79.3%
Every carrier on SMF to ORD, 1,347 flights
These figures cover 357 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.5% 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 SMF to ORD
American flew 357 of the 1,347 flights on SMF to ORD, about 27% of it. Its 74.0% on time is 5 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 79.3%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 81.2% to American at 74.0%.
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 | 990 | 81.2% | 73 min | 1.31% | B |
| American Airlines (this page)thin sample | 357 | 74.0% | 106 min | 1.96% | C |
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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 16 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm79 flights78.2%
- 2pm–5pm149 flights65.3%
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am129 flights81.5%
Scale runs 55% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is the strongest at 81.5% on time. The full set of windows spans 16 points.
Across the year
American on SMF to ORD through the year
- Jul–Sep 202530 flights—
- Oct–Dec 202532 flights65.6%
- Jan–Mar 202648 flights66.7%
- Apr–Jun 2026165 flights75.8%
- Jul–Sep 202682 flights75.9%
Scale runs 55% to 80%. 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 74.0% on time across 357 flights.
American on SMF to ORD did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2026 at 75.9% on time and its weakest Oct–Dec 2025 at 65.6%, a swing of 10 points on roughly 89 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, Wednesday is the strongest day at 80.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 67.3%, a spread of 13 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on SMF to ORD runs when it is late
American on SMF to ORD often beats the schedule: 144 of 346 completed flights, 42%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 90 late arrivals split 37 under half an hour, 20 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 33 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early144 flights41.6%
- Within 15 min112 flights32.4%
- 15–29 min late37 flights10.7%
- 30–59 min late20 flights5.8%
- 1–2 hours late16 flights4.6%
- 2+ hours late17 flights4.9%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 346 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
23 of 102 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 23% of them. 11 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for American on SMF to ORD
The latest arrival of the period was on 10 May 2026, 22 hours 46 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on five of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 10 May 2026 | 22 hours 46 minutes | Carrier |
| 26 March 2026 | 11 hours 29 minutes | Carrier |
| 13 July 2026 | 10 hours 26 minutes | Carrier |
| 4 April 2026 | 9 hours 57 minutes | Carrier |
| 29 April 2026 | 9 hours 46 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Carrier accounts for 48% of the 9,565 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 48%Carrier
- 36%Late-arriving aircraft
- 15%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
36% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 9,565 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 24 to one. The split is drawn from 9,565 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 48%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 4,554 of the 9,565 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.96% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 1.12%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
9.5% 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 61.6% on time across 356 flights, 12 points below 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. 357 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 SMF to ORD
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 357 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 74.0% 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
- SMF to ORD, every carrier
- American on ORD to SMF, the return leg
- United Airlines on SMF to ORD81.2%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Sacramento International (SMF) delay statistics
- Chicago O'Hare International (ORD) 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.