LAX → SMF Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · LAXNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 09:53 UTC

Los Angeles airport profile →

Destination · SMFNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 09:53 UTC

Sacramento airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

85/ 100Strong

Better than 94% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 16,587 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

86.1%

14,236 of 16,531

Cancellation rate

0.27%

45 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-9 min

Average -0.1 min

Severe delays

4.3%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

61 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

16,587

4 carriers

LAX → SMF arrives on time 86.1% of the time; the return trip, SMF → LAX, arrives on time 86.8% of the time.

LAX → SMF spends 21.1 minutes on the ground on a 373-mile trip: 16.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at LAX and 5.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at SMF.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

What stands out

This route holds up about the same all year, a steadier seasonal pattern than 99% of 3,357 comparable routes.

89.5% on time in its best month (September) against 82.7% in its worst (June).

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 3,357 in the comparison.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

25 min late

against a median of 9 min early

Arrived an hour or more late4.3%

Typical delay when late61 min

Cancelled0.27%

Landed somewhere else0.07%

Percentiles over 16,587 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at SMF after arriving from LAX.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, LAX → SMF arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	27%	High risk
45 min	13%	Some risk
60 min	8.4%	Some risk
90 min	4.2%	Low risk
120 min	2.4%	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 0.27% of the time and diverts 0.07% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 16,531 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 25 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 16,587 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

LAX → SMF flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 94.1% of the time, against 79.5% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 14.6 percentage points.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (LAX).

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 5.5 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 2.5 points.

On-time arrival rate for LAX to SMF by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM
7 AM–8 AM
8 AM–9 AM
9 AM–10 AM
10 AM–11 AM
11 AM–12 PM
12 PM–1 PM
1 PM–2 PM
2 PM–3 PM
3 PM–4 PM
4 PM–5 PM
5 PM–6 PM
6 PM–7 PM
7 PM–8 PM
8 PM–9 PM
9 PM–10 PM

On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time

65–69
70–74
75–79
80–84
85–89
90–94
95–99

Fewer than 120 flights, not scored

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · On time is arrival within 15 minutes of schedule. Cells round to whole percentages; the table shows one decimal.

No slot is named best or worst: too few reach 500 flights. Departures before 6 AM and after 10 PM (483 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday for LAX to SMF. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM	94.8% on time176 flights	94.7% on time151 flights	97.4% on time151 flights	95.4% on time174 flights	94.2% on time173 flights	88 flights, too few to score	111 flights, too few to score
7 AM–8 AM	116 flights, too few to score	93.5% on time139 flights	94.9% on time136 flights	111 flights, too few to score	115 flights, too few to score	75 flights, too few to score	104 flights, too few to score
8 AM–9 AM	93.8% on time193 flights	97.0% on time170 flights	95.2% on time168 flights	92.3% on time183 flights	95.4% on time194 flights	96.3% on time136 flights	89.0% on time146 flights
9 AM–10 AM	90.7% on time194 flights	93.5% on time170 flights	89.2% on time166 flights	91.7% on time193 flights	92.2% on time193 flights	91.2% on time171 flights	85.8% on time214 flights
10 AM–11 AM	91.2% on time136 flights	97.8% on time136 flights	91.7% on time144 flights	87.8% on time141 flights	89.0% on time138 flights	95.4% on time132 flights	94.4% on time126 flights
11 AM–12 PM	65 flights, too few to score	58 flights, too few to score	57 flights, too few to score	61 flights, too few to score	64 flights, too few to score	85 flights, too few to score	80 flights, too few to score
12 PM–1 PM	80.7% on time197 flights	89.9% on time150 flights	88.9% on time145 flights	83.9% on time206 flights	84.7% on time202 flights	114 flights, too few to score	84.2% on time165 flights
1 PM–2 PM	75 flights, too few to score	112 flights, too few to score	115 flights, too few to score	91 flights, too few to score	80 flights, too few to score	79 flights, too few to score	109 flights, too few to score
2 PM–3 PM	78.9% on time124 flights	106 flights, too few to score	104 flights, too few to score	119 flights, too few to score	80.3% on time122 flights	92 flights, too few to score	77.7% on time123 flights
3 PM–4 PM	84.8% on time152 flights	87.8% on time172 flights	89.9% on time169 flights	86.5% on time156 flights	83.7% on time153 flights	88.4% on time181 flights	76.9% on time156 flights
4 PM–5 PM	82.0% on time185 flights	92.4% on time131 flights	91.9% on time135 flights	84.6% on time188 flights	83.2% on time185 flights	88.5% on time122 flights	83.4% on time151 flights
5 PM–6 PM	86.8% on time159 flights	85.9% on time191 flights	84.4% on time199 flights	88.1% on time160 flights	82.9% on time152 flights	85.1% on time176 flights	77.3% on time177 flights
6 PM–7 PM	72.4% on time134 flights	118 flights, too few to score	117 flights, too few to score	73.7% on time133 flights	74.6% on time142 flights	91 flights, too few to score	78.4% on time125 flights
7 PM–8 PM	83 flights, too few to score	102 flights, too few to score	104 flights, too few to score	80 flights, too few to score	76 flights, too few to score	103 flights, too few to score	79 flights, too few to score
8 PM–9 PM	78.6% on time262 flights	85.5% on time208 flights	79.5% on time205 flights	73.7% on time253 flights	77.8% on time260 flights	77.3% on time150 flights	75.8% on time212 flights
9 PM–10 PM	83.6% on time201 flights	80.9% on time159 flights	85.2% on time169 flights	79.4% on time200 flights	78.1% on time201 flights	95 flights, too few to score	69.3% on time228 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM94.1%

9 AM–12 PM90.8%

12–3 PM84.6%

3–6 PM85.3%

6–9 PM79.7%

9 PM–5 AM79.5%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why LAX → SMF runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

The airline47.7%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Late-arriving aircraft38.2%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

Weather8.0%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Air traffic control5.8%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Security0.4%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for LAX → SMF. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

Bad weather raises cancellations by a similar amount at both ends of LAX to SMF: 1.3 times the normal rate at LAX and 1.6 times at SMF. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: LAX 1.0% against 0.8%, SMF 1.0% against 0.6%. Flights that did leave LAX in bad weather arrived on time 78.9% of the time, against 81.4% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from LAX and SMF in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	LAX	SMF
Cancelled in bad weather	1.0%	1.0%
Cancelled in normal hours	0.8%	0.6%
Arrived on time, bad weather	78.9%	83.0%
Arrived on time, normal hours	81.4%	83.2%
Departures in bad weather	60,639	12,018

Of the carriers on this route, Southwest Airlines (0.6% cancelled against 1.1% for the other carriers at LAX) cancelled the fewest departures from LAX in bad weather and Frontier Airlines (3.1% cancelled against 1.0% for the other carriers at LAX) the most.

This route’s airlines in bad weather at LAX

All departures from LAX

Cancellation rates in bad weather at LAX for the airlines that fly LAX to SMF, against the other carriers at LAX in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
Southwest Airlines	8,724	0.6%below the others	1.1%
SkyWest Airlines	11,169	1.0%about level	1.0%
United Airlines	8,785	1.2%about level	1.0%
Frontier Airlines	1,064	3.1%above the others	1.0%

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from LAX and SMF, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from LAX on every route.

Weather source and limits. In full: LAX (airlines), SMF, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.

Airlines on this route

Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.

Airlines on this route
Carrier	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Severe
SkyWest Airlines	10,490	88.3%	0.17%	-9 min	3.9%
Southwest Airlines	5,280	82.5%	0.36%	-8 min	4.7%
Frontier Airlines	453	85.7%	1.55%	-11 min	3.8%
United Airlines	201	83.5%	0.00%	-8 min	3.5%

SkyWest Airlines flew 63.9% of the 16,424 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 1.55% of its flights here against 0.00% for United Airlines.

SkyWest Airlines arrived on time 5.8 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.

Flights on this route

Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.

Flights on this route
Flight	Scheduled	Operations	On time
OO3755 SkyWest Airlines	8:30 AM	981	94.1%
OO3759 SkyWest Airlines	3:00 PM	981	88.8%
OO3812 SkyWest Airlines	12:40 PM	971	88.3%
OO3712 SkyWest Airlines	5:59 PM	714	86.7%

OO3755 (8:30 AM) arrived on time 94.1% of the time, 7.4 points more often than OO3712 (5:59 PM) at 86.7%.

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon85.1%

Tue89.8%

Wed88.5%

Thu85.1%

Fri84.8%

Sat88.2%

Sun82.0%

Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.8 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

June is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 6.8 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 84.7% against 88.5% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.8 percentage points.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 16,587 LAX → 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

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

LAX airport SMF airport Return direction SMF → LAX

LAX→SMF

Right now

Route reliability

What stands out

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By day and hour

By departure window

By departure hour

Why LAX → SMF runs late

How this route holds up in bad weather

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

This route’s airlines in bad weather at LAX

Airlines on this route

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology