OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Dallas-Fort Worth to Sacramento

1,431 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on DFW–SMF arrive on time 65% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate65%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay70 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled2.3%of scheduled flights

based on 1,671 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

  • American Airlines
    On-time65%
    Medianon time
    p9070 min
    Cancel2.3%
    Flights1,671

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline38%
  • Weather4%
  • Air traffic (NAS)8%
  • Late aircraft51%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Late aircraft.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline3%
  • Weather97%
  • Air traffic (NAS)0%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Weather. Shares are among 39 cancellations with a reported cause (BTS reports causes from June 2003).

Over time

On-time trend

By season

On-time rate by month

When to fly

Best time to fly DFW → SMF

All airlines · rolling 36 months (2023-06 .. 2026-05).

Best time of day

Mornings are the most reliable time of day to fly this route — 81% on time.

  • Mornings81% on time · p90 30 min · 1,085 flights
  • Middays74% on time · p90 50 min · 1,098 flights
  • Afternoons62% on time · p90 105 min · 222 flights
  • Overnights57% on time · p90 80 min · 1,651 flights
  • Evenings57% on time · p90 90 min · 1,118 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 61% to 69% on time.

  • Tuesdays69% on time · p90 60 min · 694 flights
  • Wednesdays68% on time · p90 60 min · 703 flights
  • Fridays67% on time · p90 75 min · 753 flights
  • Thursdays67% on time · p90 70 min · 779 flights
  • Saturdays65% on time · p90 70 min · 719 flights
  • Mondays63% on time · p90 65 min · 736 flights
  • Sundays61% on time · p90 85 min · 790 flights

Keep exploring

Related pages

Methodology

A flight is on time when it arrives within 15 minutes of schedule — the US DOT / BTS standard. Median and p90(the “1-in-10 bad day”) are read from the full arrival-delay distribution, never averaged across periods.

Figures cover a carrier’s own BTS-coded flights. Cells below ~200 flights are flagged as limited data. All numbers are pre-computed from public BTS On-Time Performance data.