Route profile
SLC→SMF
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Salt Lake City to Sacramento, 532 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 92% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,329 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
SLC → SMF arrives on time 85.7% of the time; the return trip, SMF → SLC, arrives on time 88.9% of the time, a 3.1-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SLC → SMF spends 21.4 minutes on the ground on a 532-mile trip: 16.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SLC and 5.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at SMF.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every day of the week performs about the same on this route, steadier than 98% of 4,467 comparable routes.
87.5% on time on the best day (Tuesday) against 84.1% on the worst (Saturday).
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 4,467 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where SLC to SMF differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SLC to SMF is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 10 PM: 87.4% arrive on time, 19 points ahead of the 68.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 15.8 points.
SLC to SMF holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 85.4% on time to their 75.4%, a 10 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 10.6 points.
July is kinder to SLC to SMF than to routes of similar length: 82.7% on time against 70.0%, 12.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 13 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on SLC to SMF than on its routes of similar length: 87.1% on time here, 81.6% there, 5.5 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 5.6 points.
SLC to SMF against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 10 PM departures | 87.4% | routes of similar length | 68.4% | +19.0 pts | 508 here, 39,133 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 85.4% | routes of similar length | 75.4% | +10.0 pts | 934 here, 240,221 there |
| Month: July | 82.7% | routes of similar length | 70.0% | +12.7 pts | 761 here, 181,283 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 87.1% | routes of similar length | 81.6% | +5.5 pts | 4,643 here, 371,436 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 532 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
25 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 6,329 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SMF after arriving from SLC.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 27% | High risk |
| 45 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 8.7% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.5% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.6% | 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 0.49% of the time and diverts 0.03% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,296 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 6,329 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SLC → SMF flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 93.0% of the time, against 71.9% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 21.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 96.2% on time from 134 flights
- 8 AM: 92.1% on time from 998 flights
- 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 90.5% on time from 242 flights
- 11 AM: 86.4% on time from 1,045 flights
- 12 PM to 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 84.6% on time from 1,246 flights
- 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 80.9% on time from 627 flights
- 6 PM: 76.9% on time from 225 flights
- 7 PM: 75.2% on time from 145 flights
- 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 84.5% on time from 310 flights
- 10 PM: 87.4% on time from 512 flights
- 11 PM: 85.3% on time from 342 flights
Why SLC → SMF runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for SLC → SMF. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 | 4,672 | 87.1% | 0.58% | -10 min | 4.7% |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,466 | 80.4% | 0.27% | -6 min | 4.9% |
Delta Air Lines flew 76.1% of the 6,138 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 6.7 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.
DL1367 (8:10 AM) arrived on time 91.7% of the time, 7.2 points more often than DL1342 (3:30 PM) at 84.5%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Saturday the least, a gap of 3.4 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 82.3%
- Feb: 84.5%
- Mar: 84.4%
- Apr: 87.1%
- May: 87.8%
- Jun: 85.5%
- Jul: 82.7%
- Aug: 84.2%
- Sep: 91.8%
- Oct: 85.9%
- Nov: 90.0%
- Dec: 83.5%
January is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 9.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 83.7% from 184 flights
- August 2023: 87.2% from 179 flights
- September 2023: 90.2% from 174 flights
- October 2023: 87.7% from 179 flights
- November 2023: 92.5% from 173 flights
- December 2023: 90.0% from 160 flights
- January 2024: 74.8% from 151 flights
- February 2024: 82.2% from 136 flights
- March 2024: 83.3% from 150 flights
- April 2024: 86.6% from 149 flights
- May 2024: 83.0% from 153 flights
- June 2024: 84.7% from 170 flights
- July 2024: 77.8% from 180 flights
- August 2024: 82.8% from 164 flights
- September 2024: 94.6% from 169 flights
- October 2024: 90.4% from 177 flights
- November 2024: 88.2% from 169 flights
- December 2024: 79.4% from 165 flights
- January 2025: 84.2% from 158 flights
- February 2025: 83.2% from 149 flights
- March 2025: 85.4% from 159 flights
- April 2025: 87.0% from 154 flights
- May 2025: 88.6% from 166 flights
- June 2025: 89.3% from 197 flights
- July 2025: 84.8% from 204 flights
- August 2025: 82.5% from 189 flights
- September 2025: 90.6% from 180 flights
- October 2025: 80.1% from 191 flights
- November 2025: 89.3% from 182 flights
- December 2025: 81.3% from 166 flights
- January 2026: 87.6% from 156 flights
- February 2026: 87.8% from 149 flights
- March 2026: 84.2% from 169 flights
- April 2026: 87.7% from 173 flights
- May 2026: 91.0% from 200 flights
- June 2026: 82.3% from 199 flights
- July 2026: 83.7% from 206 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 85.6% against 86.6% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,329 SLC → 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