Route profile
SMF→ONT
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Sacramento to Ontario, 390 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 95% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,181 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
SMF → ONT arrives on time 85.8% of the time; the return trip, ONT → SMF, arrives on time 86.9% of the time.
SMF → ONT spends 15.8 minutes on the ground on a 390-mile trip: 11.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SMF and 4.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at ONT.
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.
95.3% on time for 5–9 AM departures, against 59.8% for 9 PM–5 AM.
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 ONT differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SMF to ONT is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 PM: 80.8% arrive on time, 11.8 points ahead of the 69.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 13 points.
SMF to ONT struggles most at 9 PM: 59.5% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 9.6 points behind the 69.1% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 10 points.
SMF to ONT holds up on Mondays better than routes of similar length do: 87.6% on time to their 77.4%, a 10.2 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 10.4 points.
July is kinder to SMF to ONT than to routes of similar length: 84.0% on time against 70.6%, 13.4 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 14.3 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on SMF to ONT than on its routes of similar length: 85.7% on time here, 79.2% there, 6.5 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 8.3 points.
SMF to ONT against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 80.8% | routes of similar length | 69.0% | +11.8 pts | 407 here, 97,301 there |
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 59.5% | routes of similar length | 69.1% | −9.6 pts | 173 here, 55,576 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 87.6% | routes of similar length | 77.4% | +10.2 pts | 1,004 here, 244,159 there |
| Month: July | 84.0% | routes of similar length | 70.6% | +13.4 pts | 673 here, 177,571 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 85.7% | routes of similar length | 79.2% | +6.5 pts | 6,003 here, 526,465 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 390 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 8 min early
Percentiles over 6,181 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ONT after arriving from SMF.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 28% | High risk |
| 45 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 8.3% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.0% | 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 0.39% of the time and diverts 0.08% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,152 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 6,181 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SMF → ONT flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 95.3% of the time, against 59.8% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 35.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 97.0% on time from 136 flights
- 6 AM: 96.6% on time from 744 flights
- 7 AM: 94.9% on time from 218 flights
- 8 AM: 92.7% on time from 398 flights
- 9 AM: 93.9% on time from 496 flights
- 10 AM: 91.0% on time from 327 flights
- 11 AM: 88.4% on time from 303 flights
- 12 PM: 88.2% on time from 375 flights
- 1 PM: 85.2% on time from 324 flights
- 2 PM: 86.3% on time from 264 flights
- 3 PM: 80.6% on time from 291 flights
- 4 PM: 79.9% on time from 325 flights
- 5 PM: 79.1% on time from 313 flights
- 6 PM: 79.2% on time from 524 flights
- 7 PM: 80.8% on time from 409 flights
- 8 PM: 75.6% on time from 555 flights
- 9 PM: 59.5% on time from 173 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why SMF → ONT 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 → ONT. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SMF → ONT, at 65.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 95.3% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 59.8%.
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 | 6,031 | 85.7% | 0.38% | -8 min | 4.1% |
Other ways to fly Sacramento to Los Angeles
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SMF→LAX Sacramento to Los Angeles | 16,602 | 86.8% | 0.27% | -9 min | 86 |
| SMF→ONT this route Sacramento to Ontario | 6,181 | 85.8% | 0.39% | -8 min | 85 |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 6.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 91.3%
- Feb: 87.9%
- Mar: 87.0%
- Apr: 84.8%
- May: 84.2%
- Jun: 76.7%
- Jul: 84.0%
- Aug: 89.2%
- Sep: 88.5%
- Oct: 85.5%
- Nov: 86.9%
- Dec: 85.6%
June is historically the weakest month and January the strongest, a spread of 14.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 86.0% from 150 flights
- August 2023: 85.9% from 162 flights
- September 2023: 84.8% from 151 flights
- October 2023: 81.1% from 160 flights
- November 2023: 84.1% from 145 flights
- December 2023: 93.2% from 149 flights
- January 2024: 95.7% from 141 flights
- February 2024: 88.3% from 129 flights
- March 2024: 87.7% from 154 flights
- April 2024: 83.8% from 154 flights
- May 2024: 81.9% from 156 flights
- June 2024: 76.9% from 143 flights
- July 2024: 79.9% from 165 flights
- August 2024: 91.4% from 187 flights
- September 2024: 90.7% from 184 flights
- October 2024: 89.6% from 193 flights
- November 2024: 89.6% from 173 flights
- December 2024: 84.4% from 167 flights
- January 2025: 93.5% from 156 flights
- February 2025: 90.6% from 149 flights
- March 2025: 86.4% from 176 flights
- April 2025: 86.8% from 182 flights
- May 2025: 87.0% from 185 flights
- June 2025: 78.3% from 176 flights
- July 2025: 87.2% from 179 flights
- August 2025: 89.8% from 178 flights
- September 2025: 89.3% from 177 flights
- October 2025: 85.0% from 181 flights
- November 2025: 86.4% from 178 flights
- December 2025: 80.2% from 179 flights
- January 2026: 85.2% from 155 flights
- February 2026: 84.9% from 152 flights
- March 2026: 87.0% from 184 flights
- April 2026: 83.7% from 184 flights
- May 2026: 83.3% from 187 flights
- June 2026: 75.0% from 177 flights
- July 2026: 82.8% from 183 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 84.4% against 87.9% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.5 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,181 SMF → ONT 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