Route profile
ATL→SMF
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Atlanta to Sacramento, 2,092 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 84% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,038 flights. How this is calculated
ATL → SMF arrives on time 82.9% of the time; the return trip, SMF → ATL, arrives on time 90.1% of the time, a 7.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
ATL → SMF spends 22.3 minutes on the ground on a 2,092-mile trip: 16.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at ATL and 5.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at SMF.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Unlike most, it barely matters what time you fly this route, a steadier spread than 91% of 4,023 comparable routes.
88.1% on time for 9 AM–12 PM departures, against 79.3% for 3–6 PM, a narrow gap either way.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 4,023 in the comparison.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
29 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 3,038 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SMF after arriving from ATL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 35% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 16% | High risk |
| 60 min | 9.5% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.4% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.3% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 0.89% of the time and diverts 0.10% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,008 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 29 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,038 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
ATL → SMF flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 88.1% of the time, against 79.3% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 8.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 88.2% on time from 1,080 flights
- 10 AM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 81.5% on time from 249 flights
- 5 PM: 76.3% on time from 499 flights
- 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 82.8% on time from 379 flights
- 8 PM: 78.2% on time from 534 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why ATL → SMF runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for ATL → SMF. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 3,038 | 82.9% | 0.89% | -6 min | 4.6% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
DL904 (9:15 AM) arrived on time 88.3% of the time, 9.4 points more often than DL743 (5:59 PM) at 78.9%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 9.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 85.0%
- Feb: 77.9%
- Mar: 85.4%
- Apr: 86.3%
- May: 79.0%
- Jun: 79.5%
- Jul: 75.4%
- Aug: 80.4%
- Sep: 91.8%
- Oct: 89.2%
- Nov: 84.7%
- Dec: 82.9%
July is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 16.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.2% against 81.3% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,038 ATL → SMF flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed