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WanderNerd

Route Reliability

Sacramento → Denver

SMFDEN · 909 miles · Sacramento International Airport to Denver International Airport

87
Pretty Reliable
WanderNerd Reliability Score
82%
Arrive within 15 minutes
4 min
Average arrival delay
0.4%
Cancelled
3,827
Flights in the data

Data through May 2026.

Who flies it best

Ranked by on-time arrivals. Historical results, not predictions.

  1. 1.United Airlines88%1,802 flights
  2. 2.Frontier Airlines82%164 flights
  3. 3.Southwest Airlines77%1,861 flights

What the data says

Morning flights do better here.

SMF–DEN flights departing between 3–6 AM arrived on time 96% of the time, versus 69% between 3–6 PM.

Saturday comes out ahead.

A small edge: 86% on time on Saturdays against 80% on Thursdays.

United Airlines runs this route best.

United Airlines arrived on time 88% of the time on this route; Southwest Airlines managed 77%.

Ticking up lately.

SMF–DEN flights arrived on time 86% of the time over the last three months in the data, compared with 83% in the three months before that.

Best historical flights

Ranked by on-time arrivals, minimum 100 flights. Past performance, not a promise.

Top flights by on-time rate

More flights on this route

The breakdown

On-time by weekday
  • Mon82%(596 flights)
  • Tue83%(506 flights)
  • Wed83%(533 flights)
  • Thu80%(566 flights)
  • Fri81%(602 flights)
  • Sat86%(433 flights)
  • Sun83%(559 flights)
On-time by departure window
  • 3–6 AM96%(564 flights)
  • 6–9 AM94%(666 flights)
  • 9 AM–12 PM90%(569 flights)
  • 12–3 PM75%(919 flights)
  • 3–6 PM69%(560 flights)
  • 6–9 PM72%(517 flights)
On-time trend by month
86%
May

Jun 75% → May 86% on time

On-time arrival percentage by month
MonthOn-time percentageFlights
June 202575%367
July 202570%374
August 202580%343
September 202582%342
October 202591%335
November 202587%315
December 202575%299
January 202685%262
February 202688%258
March 202685%291
April 202688%290
May 202686%319

Based on 3,827 historical flights, because apparently we checked. Historical flight data: U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, June 2025 – May 2026. Data through May 2026. How we calculate this.