Sacramento to Las Vegas

What the Data Says About SMF to LAS

The Sacramento to Las Vegas corridor (SMF → LAS) covers roughly 397 miles and is served by 18 carriers, based on Bureau of Transportation Statistics reporting. Across 26,989 flights in the dataset, this route posts a 80.6% on-time rate with an average delay of 61.8 minutes when flights run late. Over the most recent 24 months of BTS data, 10,711 flights were recorded on this pairing — 73 cancelled (0.7%) and 7 diverted (0.1%). Those baseline metrics tell you what to expect before you book.

Having 18 carriers on the route matters: more carriers generally means more daily schedule options, competitive pricing, and redundancy when flights are cancelled. With 26,989 total flights analyzed, the 80.6% on-time figure is statistically meaningful rather than a small-sample fluke. The 61.8-minute average delay applies only to flights that actually ran late, so it is not the average wait across all departures — the majority of flights on this route depart on time under the BTS definition of a delay (15+ minutes past schedule).

Looking at recent months, Nov 2024 posted the best performance on this corridor at 89% on-time, while Jul 2024 came in at 74% on-time — a 15-point gap between best and worst recent month. For travelers evaluating the SMF to LAS route, the combination of a 80.6% on-time rate, 61.8-minute average delay, 0.7% recent cancellation rate, and 18 available carriers is the concrete summary of what BTS data shows about reliability on this pairing.