Routes › Denver (DEN) › DEN to SMF
Route · 12 months to July 2026
Denver to Sacramento: on-time record
Denver International to Sacramento International
BTS: A flight is counted as on time if it arrived less than 15 minutes after its scheduled time. Only carriers with at least 0.5 percent of domestic scheduled passenger revenue report. Data through July 2026; this is a monthly history, not live flight status.
Flights from Denver (DEN) to Sacramento (SMF) arrived on time 73.6% of the time in the 12 months to July 2026. Reporting carriers scheduled 3,850 flights on the route in that period, about 11 a day, a distance of 909 miles.
That is 2.4 points below the national on-time share of 76.0% for the same period and 2.5 points below the 76.1% recorded for all departures from DEN. Flights that did arrive were 9.2 min late on average, and 0.3% of scheduled flights were cancelled (national: 1.8%).
3 reporting carriers flew the route at least 60 times. Frontier Airlines had the highest on-time share at 81.4% of 183 flights; Southwest Airlines had the lowest at 65.7% of 1,873.
By scheduled departure hour (local time at DEN), flights leaving from 8 am to 9 am had the highest on-time share, 91.6%; those leaving from 6 pm to 7 pm had the lowest, 40.3%.
The on-time share is down 1.9 points on the previous 12 months (75.5%); cancellations moved from 0.2% to 0.3%.
Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category on this route, late-arriving aircraft 54%, air carrier 35% and national aviation system 10%.
- On time 73.6%
- Arrived 15+ minutes late 26.1%
- Cancelled 0.3%
- Diverted 0.1%
Airlines on the route compared
| Reporting carrier | Flights | Share | On time | Avg arrival delay | Cancelled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WN Southwest Airlines | 1,873 | 49% | 65.7% | 14.8 min | 0.3% |
| UA United Airlines | 1,793 | 47% | 81.0% | 4.1 min | 0.3% |
| F9 Frontier Airlines | 183 | 5% | 81.4% | 2.4 min | 0.0% |
Carriers with at least 24 flights in the 12 months to July 2026. The on-time pill is green when a carrier is at or above the route's overall share. Regional carriers operate flights sold under larger airlines' brands; BTS lists the carrier that operated the flight.
Compared with the airports and the nation
| Measure | DEN to SMF | All departures from DEN | All arrivals at SMF | All reported flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arrived on time | 73.6% | 76.1% | 79.4% | 76.0% |
| Arrived 15+ minutes late | 26.1% | 22.9% | 19.8% | 21.9% |
| Cancelled | 0.3% | 0.7% | 0.7% | 1.8% |
| Diverted | 0.1% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.3% |
| Average arrival delay | 9.2 min | 7.8 min | 3.9 min | 8.1 min |
| Delay minutes per 100 flights | 1,554 | 1,568 | 1,214 | 1,684 |
| Scheduled flights | 3,850 | 319,208 | 56,302 | 7,043,858 |
12 months to July 2026. Delay minutes count late arrivals only (an early arrival is zero), so the per-100-flights row is a normalised total rather than an average of early and late.
The return direction, SMF to DEN, recorded 82.7% on time across 3,845 flights in the same period.
Month by month
Year on year: on time 73.6% against 75.5% (−1.9 pts), cancelled 0.3% against 0.2%, flights 3,850 against 4,023.
By scheduled departure hour
Delay causes
Seasonality
| Calendar month | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Avg arrival delay | Years in sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 838 | 75.2% | 1.3% | 2.7 min | 3 |
| Feb | 786 | 75.4% | 0.6% | 8.1 min | 3 |
| Mar | 921 | 77.4% | 0.9% | 5.1 min | 3 |
| Apr | 933 | 74.9% | 0.1% | 9.7 min | 3 |
| May | 1,019 | 72.1% | 0.1% | 10.5 min | 3 |
| Jun | 1,126 | 61.7% | 0.4% | 19.4 min | 3 |
| Jul | 1,174 | 66.2% | 1.4% | 18.8 min | 3 |
| Aug | 1,087 | 71.7% | 0.6% | 10.4 min | 3 |
| Sep | 1,022 | 81.0% | 0.3% | 3.7 min | 3 |
| Oct | 1,057 | 81.5% | 0.0% | 3.1 min | 3 |
| Nov | 999 | 83.0% | 0.3% | -0.4 min | 3 |
| Dec | 976 | 77.9% | 0.0% | 4.4 min | 3 |
Each calendar month summed across the 36 months on file, so most rows combine three years. The pill compares the month with the route's own 12-month share.
Other routes from Denver (DEN)
| Route | Cities | Flights | On time | Avg arrival delay | Cancelled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DEN–PHX | Denver to Phoenix | 8,973 | 75.3% | 9.5 min | 0.8% |
| DEN–SLC | Denver to Salt Lake City | 7,733 | 78.4% | 5.6 min | 0.4% |
| DEN–LAX | Denver to Los Angeles | 7,708 | 78.7% | 5.1 min | 0.5% |
| DEN–LAS | Denver to Las Vegas | 7,133 | 75.1% | 8.3 min | 0.6% |
| DEN–SEA | Denver to Seattle | 6,317 | 74.2% | 8.1 min | 0.6% |
| DEN–ORD | Denver to Chicago | 6,131 | 71.0% | 17.7 min | 1.1% |
| DEN–DFW | Denver to Dallas/Fort Worth | 6,036 | 73.7% | 13.0 min | 2.0% |
| DEN–SAN | Denver to San Diego | 6,035 | 74.7% | 6.3 min | 0.7% |
All 193 routes and the airport record for DEN · airport record for SMF
Questions and answers
How often are flights from Denver to Sacramento on time?
73.6% of the 3,850 flights scheduled from DEN to SMF in the 12 months to July 2026 arrived less than 15 minutes after their scheduled time. The national share for the same period was 76.0%. Cancelled and diverted flights count as not on time.
Which airline has the highest on-time share from DEN to SMF?
Among reporting carriers with at least 60 flights on the route, Frontier Airlines had the highest on-time share (81.4%), followed by United Airlines (81.0%) and Southwest Airlines (65.7%). Differences of a point or two on a few hundred flights are small.
What causes delays between Denver and Sacramento?
For flights that arrived 15 or more minutes late, carriers attributed the delay minutes as follows: late-arriving aircraft 54%, air carrier 35%, national aviation system 10%, extreme weather 1%, security 0%. The categories are the carriers' own reports to BTS; weather that slows the wider system is usually recorded under the National Aviation System rather than extreme weather.
What time of day has the highest on-time share from DEN?
Flights scheduled to leave DEN from 8 am to 9 am arrived on time 91.6% of the time, the highest of any hour with enough flights to compare. The lowest was 6 pm to 7 pm at 40.3%. Delays tend to build through the day as late aircraft carry over to later flights.
Is it getting better?
The on-time share for the 12 months to July 2026 was 73.6%, down 1.9 points on the previous 12 months (75.5%). The monthly chart on this page shows each of the last 36 months. Across those months, November had the highest on-time share (83.0%) and June the lowest (61.7%).
Where does this data come from?
Every figure is computed from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance files, which list each scheduled domestic flight by the carriers required to report. This page covers August 2023 to July 2026. It shows totals and averages only; it is not a live flight-status service.
Provenance
Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance (1987 to present), monthly files August 2023 to July 2026, a US government work in the public domain. Figures are totals and averages over all scheduled flights by reporting carriers on the route; no individual flight or aircraft is identified. Times are local to the departure airport. The load factor and passenger counts from the BTS T-100 series are not included in this edition. See the methodology; report processing errors through corrections.