Flight profile · United Airlines
UA2149
Denver (DEN) to Sacramento (SMF) · scheduled 8:00 AM – 9:37 AM
How UA2149 performs
985 operations, July 2023 – July 2026.
UA2149 arrived on time 91.9% of the time, against 74.5% for all DEN → SMF flights, so this departure is 17.4 percentage points better than the route as a whole. Against United Airlines’ own flights on this route it is 11.3 points better.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 985 operations, July 2023 – July 2026 · If UA2149 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
What stands out
How UA2149 compares to other flight numbers, not just to itself.
This flight runs unusually far ahead of the DEN → SMF route as a whole, better than 99% of 11,788 comparable flight numbers.
91.9% on time for this specific departure, against 74.5% for every DEN → SMF flight.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · The one thing about this specific departure that ranks most extreme against every other published flight number, out of everything FlyerIntel checks — shown only when something clears a real statistical bar, not for every flight.
Where UA2149 is right now
A live reading, only if you ask for it. It is not part of the reliability record above.
Ask for the position of UA2149 right now, if receivers on the ground are hearing it. Nothing is requested until you press the button.
Against the rest of the route
| Flight or route | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UA2149 | 91.9% | 0.30% | -13 min | 2.9% | 985 |
| United Airlines on DEN → SMF | 80.6% | 0.59% | -7 min | 7.1% | 5,728 |
| All DEN → SMF flights | 74.5% | 0.59% | -2 min | 8.0% | 12,300 |
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026
Why UA2149 runs late
Where US DOT attributed the delay minutes on this flight.
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for UA2149 on DEN → SMF. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
Does a late aircraft delay this flight?
How often the plane that flies UA2149 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
The aircraft flying UA2149 came in 15 or more minutes late on 11% of the departures where its previous flight is known. There are not enough departures in both groups to say how the flight left after a late one and after an on-time one.
Each departure is matched to the flight the same aircraft flew into DEN just before it, using the tail number in the DOT file, 652 of 982 departures in all. A departure is left out when that flight is unknown, was cancelled or diverted, or the aircraft had sat for more than 12 hours. A flight the airline cancelled never left and is not in the count, and one flown by a substitute aircraft is matched to the aircraft that flew it, not to the one first planned.
Against the network at the same turn length
| Share of departures | Inbound landed 15+ late |
|---|---|
| UA2149 | 11% |
| Network, same turn | 33% |
The schedule leaves a long gap on the ground, which gives a late aircraft room to catch up before this flight pushes back.
The network row is every flight with a scheduled turn of 3 to 6 hours. How often UA2149’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is lower than the network’s. There are not enough departures in both groups to compare how it left.
More: Which Flight Numbers Pay for a Late Aircraft lists the flight numbers that pass a late aircraft on.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
From pushback to gate
When it leaves DEN late, does that still matter by the time it reaches SMF?
UA2149 pushes back an average of 0.0 minutes early and reaches the gate at SMF an average of 8.2 minutes early. The 8.2 minutes between those two figures are slack the published schedule already carries, which is why a late pushback on this flight does not reliably become a late arrival. Its 18.7 minutes on the taxiways at DEN is about what any departure from the airport in that hour spends.
On arrival at SMF, UA2149 spends 4.8 min taxiing from touchdown to the gate — ground time a connecting passenger sits through before they can even leave the aircraft, on top of however late the flight itself ran. That is about what any arrival at SMF spends on the ground before reaching the gate.
Departure delay is averaged over every pushback and arrival delay over every completed arrival, so the two counts differ by the flights that never reached SMF. Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block rather than on top of it; the comparison is 53,796 departures from DEN scheduled in the clock hour UA2149 most often leaves in. Taxi-in is landing to gate, compared against every arrival FlyerIntel has on file at SMF (172,477 flights), not just UA2149’s own. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026
The hour it leaves DEN
Part of any flight’s record belongs to the clock rather than to the flight. UA2149 has one departure time, so this is what that time is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 53,796 departures from DEN are scheduled in the 8 AM–9 AM hour over the period, against 963,099 across the whole day.
UA2149 is scheduled out of DEN at 8:00 AM, in the 8 AM–9 AM bank. Departures from DEN in that hour arrive on time 86.8% of the time against 76.0% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 10.8 points better before anything about this particular flight is considered.
The two airport figures cover every departure from DEN to every destination, so they describe the slot rather than this journey — the like-for-like comparison against the route is above. Hours are scheduled local, and a number whose schedule moved between banks inside the period has no single hour and is not described here at all. Why the hour matters.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Hours below 120 departures are not scored.
By day of week
Does UA2149 run worse on particular days?
Thursday is historically the most reliable day and Saturday the least, a gap of 4.6 percentage points.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Days with fewer than 120 operations are not scored.
Other routes UA2149 has flown
A flight number is a slot in a schedule, and carriers reassign it. These are the other city pairs this number served in the analysis period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| EWR→SAN Newark to San Diego | December 18, 2025 – January 5, 2026 | 19 | — |
| SAN→SFO San Diego to San Francisco | December 18, 2025 – January 5, 2026 | 9 | — |
| DEN→FCA Denver to Kalispell | September 25, 2025 – October 25, 2025 | 31 | — |
| LGA→DEN New York to Denver | September 25, 2025 – October 25, 2025 | 31 | — |
| DEN→MSY Denver to New Orleans | December 19, 2024 – January 6, 2025 | 16 | — |
| TUL→DEN Tulsa to Denver | December 19, 2024 – January 6, 2025 | 16 | — |
| CID→DEN Cedar Rapids to Denver | July 4, 2024 – August 17, 2024 | 19 | — |
| MSP→DEN Minneapolis to Denver | July 1, 2023 – May 22, 2024 | 137 | 93.8% |
| DEN→LAS Denver to Las Vegas | January 9, 2024 – February 14, 2024 | 31 | — |
Because the same number has served different journeys, the statistics above describe only the route UA2149 currently operates. Blending them would produce an average of two different flights.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
11 min late
against a median of 13 min early
Percentiles over 985 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
Other flights on this route
Same airports, same journey, different odds of arriving on time.
| Flight | Airline | On time | Median arrival | Operations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UA2149 this flight | United Airlines | 91.9% | 13 min early | 985 |
| UA1415 | United Airlines | 82.2% | 6 min early | 1,097 |
| UA1208 | United Airlines | 82.2% | 8 min early | 1,123 |
| UA2132 | United Airlines | 73.2% | 2 min early | 1,085 |
Every departure listed carries at least 600 operations, so the comparison is between figures that mean something. UA2149 is placed in the same ordering rather than left out of it; the rows around it are the most punctual departures on the route, not all of them, so this is a comparison and not a rank. Schedules change; confirm the departure still operates before booking around this.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 985 records of UA2149 operating DEN → SMF, published by the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics. A flight counts as delayed when it arrives 15 or more minutes after schedule. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the on-time rate and reported separately. Flight numbers are resolved as carrier plus number plus route, because the same number serves different routes over time.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: Most and Least Reliable Flight Numbers · The Delay You Inherit · Making Up Time in the Air
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