Route profile
SMF→DAL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Sacramento to Dallas, 1,442 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 76% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,870 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
SMF → DAL arrives on time 78.6% of the time; the return trip, DAL → SMF, arrives on time 73.6% of the time, a 4.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SMF → DAL spends 17.0 minutes on the ground on a 1,442-mile trip: 11.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SMF and 5.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at DAL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
On-time performance swings unusually widely by time of day here, wider than 97% of 4,023 comparable routes.
93.0% on time for 5–9 AM departures, against 58.0% for 3–6 PM.
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.
What sets this route apart
Where SMF to DAL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SMF to DAL struggles most at 1 PM: 54.5% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 21.4 points behind the 75.9% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 22.6 points.
February is kinder to SMF to DAL than to routes of similar length: 91.7% on time against 81.4%, 10.3 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 10.3 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on SMF to DAL than on its routes of similar length: 78.6% on time here, 75.9% there, 2.7 points apart.
SMF to DAL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 54.5% | routes of similar length | 75.9% | −21.4 pts | 123 here, 89,165 there |
| Month: February | 91.7% | routes of similar length | 81.4% | +10.3 pts | 120 here, 109,073 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 78.6% | routes of similar length | 75.9% | +2.7 pts | 1,847 here, 347,546 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 1,442 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
32 min late
against a median of 2 min early
Percentiles over 1,870 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DAL after arriving from SMF.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 43% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 20% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.4% | 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 0.53% of the time and diverts 0.70% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,847 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 32 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,870 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SMF → DAL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 93.0% of the time, against 58.0% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 35.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 92.6% on time from 523 flights
- 6 AM: 93.5% on time from 218 flights
- 7 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 54.5% on time from 125 flights
- 2 PM: 64.0% on time from 164 flights
- 3 PM: 61.1% on time from 255 flights
- 4 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why SMF → DAL runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
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
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 SMF → DAL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SMF → DAL, at 48.5%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 93.0% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 58.0%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 1,870 | 78.6% | 0.53% | -2 min | 4.7% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 5.4 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: no data
- Feb: 91.7%
- Mar: 73.8%
- Apr: 81.5%
- May: 75.0%
- Jun: 67.1%
- Jul: 71.0%
- Aug: 73.8%
- Sep: 85.3%
- Oct: 86.1%
- Nov: 80.1%
- Dec: 77.0%
June is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 24.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 74.0% against 79.7% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,870 SMF → DAL 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