DEN to SMF flight delays
Denver, CO (DEN) Sacramento, CA (SMF) · 909 miles
376 flights · March 2025 – August 2026 · US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
59.04%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
0%
Cancelled
Share of scheduled flights
55 min
When late, late by
Average across delayed arrivals
24 min
Delay per flight
Averaged over every flight flown
What the record says about this route
Which airline you fly changes the odds here. United Airlines arrived on time 27.3 points more often than Southwest Airlines over the same period on the same route — same airports, same weather, same air traffic control. A gap that survives all of that is about how the two airlines are run.
This is a late route. Flights from Denver to Sacramento miss their scheduled arrival often enough that a tight connection at the far end is a connection at risk.
The two directions do not behave alike. SMF to DEN arrives on time 23 points more often than the outbound. Delay accumulates through the flying day, so whichever direction is scheduled later tends to carry the worse record — which is an argument for booking the morning departure if the choice exists.
This route does worse than its own airport. DEN as a whole runs 9.9 points more punctual than these flights, which points at something specific to the route — the time of day it is scheduled, or the aircraft that feed it — rather than the airport.
Which airline should you fly on this route?
Over March 2025 – August 2026, United Airlines arrived on time most often on DEN to SMF. Southwest Airlines was late most often.
Every airline on DEN to SMF
Ranked by how many flights each one operated. A carrier with fewer than 100 flights in the period is listed but not graded.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Avg delay | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 188 | 44.68% | 0% | 57 min | F |
| United Airlines | 171 | 71.93% | 0% | 53 min | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 17 | 88.24% | 0% | 38 min | — |
The return leg
SMF to DEN Sacramento back to Denver 82.04% on time BOther routes from Denver
Common questions
Are flights from Denver to Sacramento usually delayed?
59.04% of flights on the DEN to SMF route arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, so roughly 4 in every ten arrived late. That is worse than the average route in this record.
Which airline is most on time from Denver to Sacramento?
United Airlines, at 71.93% on time across 171 flights. The least punctual on the route was Southwest Airlines at 44.68%.
How often are DEN to SMF flights cancelled?
0% of scheduled flights did not operate — about 1 in every thousand. That is in the normal range.
When DEN to SMF flights are late, how late are they?
About 55 minutes on average across the flights that arrived more than 15 minutes behind schedule.
What these figures do and do not tell you
Everything on this page is counted from the flights that actually operated on DEN to SMF during March 2025 – August 2026, as reported by the airlines to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. "On time" is the federal definition: arriving at the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.
A route's record is a description of the past, not a forecast. Weather, air traffic control and the aircraft's earlier flights that day drive most delays, and none of them are predictable from a historical rate. What the record does tell you is whether this route runs late more often than others, and which carrier on it has the better history — which is the part you can actually act on when you book.
Cancellations are counted separately from delays because they are a different problem for a traveller: a late flight still gets you there. How the grade is calculated →