Best time to fly out of Santa Maria (SMX)
Santa Maria Public Captain G Allan Hancock did not fly enough departures in this window to split the day into time bands. Not enough flights to say. A percentage needs at least 100 flights behind it before it is worth printing; anything thinner is noise wearing a decimal point. These are historical odds, not forecasts. The records say what happened on this schedule over three years; they know nothing about tomorrow’s thunderstorm.
Data through June 2026 · Bureau of Transportation Statistics
On-time rate by hour and day
On this page, “on time” means a departure that pushed back less than 15 minutes behind its scheduled time — the Bureau of Transportation Statistics definition, and the one airlines are held to.
| Departure time | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before 6am | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 6–8am | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 8–10am | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 10am–12pm | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 12–2pm | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2–4pm | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 4–6pm | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 6–8pm | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 8–10pm | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 10pm–12am | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Not enough flights to say — fewer than 100 in this window.
The year at SMX
Month by month, Santa Maria Public Captain G Allan Hancock is too thin to read. Not enough flights to say — fewer than 100 in this window.
| Month | Share departures that left on time | Flights |
|---|---|---|
| January | Not enough flights to say | 88 |
| February | Not enough flights to say | 81 |
| March | Not enough flights to say | 89 |
| April | Not enough flights to say | 85 |
| May | Not enough flights to say | 39 |
| June | Not enough flights to say | 26 |
| July | Not enough flights to say | 26 |
| August | Not enough flights to say | 27 |
| September | Not enough flights to say | 25 |
| October | Not enough flights to say | 58 |
| November | Not enough flights to say | 90 |
| December | Not enough flights to say | 88 |
Airlines at SMX
Every airline with at least 100 departures from SMX, busiest first. These are that airline’s departures from this airport only — its record across the country sits on its own page.
| Airline | Left on time | Typical delay | Cancelled | Departures |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 83.8% | 144 min | 1.2% | 405 |
| Allegiant Air | 67.9% | 109 min | 0.6% | 317 |
What delays out of SMX were put down to
Airlines file a reason with every arrival running 15 minutes late or more. Across 171 flights that departed SMX and ran 15 minutes late or more, the delay minutes break down with 43% put down to late-arriving aircraft and 35.2% to airline operations.
- Late-arriving aircraft 43%
- Airline operations 35.2%
- Air traffic & airport volume 9.1%
- Severe weather 12.7%
- Security 0.1%
Late-arriving aircraft is the knock-on category: the plane came in late, so it went out late again. It is why a 7am problem in Newark is still a problem in Denver at dinnertime, and why it is usually the biggest slice on the bar.
If you are connecting through SMX
Of 722 scheduled arrivals into SMX, 80.1% reached the gate less than 15 minutes behind schedule. Of the 131 arrivals that ran late, 44.3% were no more than 45 minutes behind — which is the difference between a tight connection and a new boarding pass.
Work out a specific layover — pick the airport and the minutes you have, and the tool reads the same arrival records back as a share.
Busiest routes out of SMX
Ranked by flights, with the share that arrived on time at the far end. Where a route carries enough flights for a page of its own the chip goes there; otherwise it goes to the destination airport.
SMX in one number
Santa Maria Public Captain G Allan Hancock (SMX)
Rank 339 of 363 US airports by departures. Steadiest stretch of the day: —. Hardest month: —.
Questions about SMX
- Which airline is most on time at SMX?
- SkyWest Airlines — 83.8% of its 405 departures from SMX left on time. Allegiant Air sat at the other end at 67.9% over 317 flights. Only airlines with at least 100 departures here are ranked.
- How often are flights cancelled at SMX?
- 1% of scheduled departures were cancelled over July 2023 through June 2026. Cancellations are counted against everything scheduled, not against everything that flew — a rate that looks small still adds up to real people in a rebooking line.