SMF to SAN flight delays
SMF SAN Sacramento to San Diego · 480 miles
15,847 flights were scheduled from SMF to SAN over July 2023 through June 2026. Of the 15,677 that made the trip, 76.8% reached the gate less than 15 minutes behind schedule. These are arrival figures: “on time” means the flight reached the gate less than 15 minutes behind schedule. Arrivals are what decide whether you make the connection, so route and airline pages are scored on them rather than on pushback.
Data through June 2026 · Bureau of Transportation Statistics
The route in brief
- Flights in the window
- 15,847
- Arrived on time
- 76.8%
- Cancelled
- 0.9%
- Scheduled distance
- 480 miles
Cancellations are counted against everything scheduled. Diverted flights are counted with them rather than as very late arrivals, which is why the on-time share and the cancellation rate do not add up to everything that happened.
Airline by airline
Airlines with at least 100 flights on SMF–SAN, busiest first. Same route, same weather, same air traffic — which makes this the fairest comparison on the site.
| Airline | Arrived on time | Typical delay | Cancelled | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 76.1% | 49 min | 0.7% | 11,747 |
| SkyWest Airlines | 79.1% | 55 min | 1.1% | 3,561 |
| Spirit Airlines | 77.1% | 82 min | 1.7% | 240 |
| Alaska Airlines | 85.5% | — | 3.2% | 185 |
| Frontier Airlines | 71.8% | 62 min | 2.6% | 114 |
A dash under typical delay means fewer than 30 of that airline’s flights arrived 15 minutes late or more — too few to average.
Month by month
June was the month to avoid on SMF–SAN: 68.9% of flights arrived on time, against 81.8% in January. Each bar pools three years of that calendar month.
| Month | Share flights that arrived on time | Flights |
|---|---|---|
| January | 81.8% | 1,178 |
| February | 79% | 1,128 |
| March | 79.3% | 1,318 |
| April | 78.8% | 1,324 |
| May | 77.7% | 1,369 |
| June | 68.9% | 1,373 |
| July | 75.1% | 1,416 |
| August | 77.7% | 1,386 |
| September | 79.3% | 1,338 |
| October | 73.2% | 1,376 |
| November | 77.1% | 1,345 |
| December | 75.6% | 1,296 |
Both ends of the route
A route’s record is built out of two airports’ habits. The hour-by-hour grid for each is on its own page.
SMF to SAN in one number
SMF → SAN
When a flight on this route was late, it was late by about 51 min.
Questions about SMF to SAN
- Which airline is most reliable from SMF to SAN?
- Alaska Airlines — its flights on this pairing arrived on time 85.5% of the time, with 185 scheduled. Frontier Airlines came in at 71.8% over 114 scheduled. Airlines with fewer than 100 flights on the route are not rated.
- What is the worst month to fly SMF to SAN?
- June, at 68.9% of arrivals on time, with 1,373 flights scheduled. January was the best of the year at 81.8%.
- How late are SMF–SAN flights when they are late?
- 51 min on average, counting only the flights that arrived 15 minutes or more behind schedule. The on-time flights are left out of that average on purpose — mixing them in would flatter it.
- How often is the SMF to SAN flight cancelled?
- 0.9% of scheduled flights on this route were cancelled, July 2023 through June 2026. Diverted flights are counted with the cancellations rather than as late arrivals.
- Are these departure or arrival numbers?
- Arrival. A flight counts as on time here if it reached the gate at SAN less than 15 minutes behind schedule. Airport pages score departures instead, because that is the number you can act on when you pick a booking time.