The flight time from Sacramento to Chicago is 3 hours, 55 minutes. See Data as Tables

Average Timeline

Leaves SMF Sacramento, CA 4 minutes early.
12 minutes taxiing out
3 hours, 30 minutes in the air
11 minutes taxiing in
Arrives ORD Chicago, IL 10 minutes early.

Flight Reliability By Airline ?

United
89%
American
89%
Cancelled
Delayed*
Normal

Flight Summary

The flight time from Sacramento to Chicago is 3 hours, 55 minutes. The time spent in the air is 3 hours, 30 minutes.

The flight distance from Sacramento to Chicago is 1781 Miles.

Reverse Journey

Chicago to Sacramento
4 hours, 24 minutes

Flight Time By Airline ?

United
3h 54m
American
3h 56m
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flight Time by Time of Day ?

12AM06AM12PM06PM1h2h3h4h
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flights By Time of Day ?
(Average)

12AM06AM12PM06PM0.00.20.40.60.81.0

Flights Per Week

21

Distance

1781 Miles

Flights By Month ?

JFMAMJJASOND050100

Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun01234

Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)

United
16
American
5

Frequently Asked Questions

How far is Sacramento from Chicago by plane?

The distance from Sacramento to Chicago by plane is 1781 Miles. This is the air distance on the most direct route taken by the vast majority of flights.

How long is the flight from Sacramento to Chicago?

The flight time from Sacramento to Chicago is 3 hours, 55 minutes. The time spent in the air is 3 hours, 30 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with United being the fastest taking 3 hours, 54 minutes, and American the slowest taking 3 hours, 56 minutes.

What airlines fly from Sacramento to Chicago?

American and United are the airlines with direct flights from Sacramento to Chicago.

Does Southwest fly from Sacramento to Chicago?

Southwest does not fly from Sacramento (SMF) to Chicago (ORD). Keep in mind that Southwest may fly to other nearby airports, as they will often fly into smaller airpors instead of larger ones. This is because the costs are often lower to fly into smaller airports, and they pass the savings on to you.

Tables and Explanations

Data Source

Our information is computed from the latest available data from the US Department of Transportation.

Average Timeline Timeline Chart

The average timeline contains the median time a flight spends in 3 stages. The first of these three stages is taxiing out which includes the time from the flight leaving the gate to taking off. The second stage is in the air, which includes the time spent from the flight leaving the ground to touching back down at the end of it's journey. The last stage is taxiing in, which is from when the flight touches down to the flight arriving at it's gate.

The average timeline also estimates on average of when the flight will leave and arrive relative to it's stated departure time.

Leaves Sacramento 4 minutes early
Taxi Out Time 12 minutes
In the Air 210 minutes
Taxiing In 11 minutes
Arrives Chicago 10 minutes early

Flight Reliability Reliability Chart

The reliability of an airline measures how often the airline's flights on this route are cancelled or delayed more than 20 minutes. For example, from Sacramento to Chicago, American is 89% reliable, which means that American flights are on time 89% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled
American 89% 10% 1%
United 89% 10% 1%

Flight Time By Airline Flight Time By Airline Chart

Each airline takes a different amount of time to fly between Sacramento and Chicago, this is due to different operational factors on the ground, as well as scheduling of planes. Each airline's flight time is split into three stages which are described above in the "Average Timeline" section. There are also miscellaneous operational issues which are included in the below total but are not accounted for in one of the three stages.

Airline Taxiing Out
(minutes)
In the Air
(minutes)
Taxiing In
(minutes)
Total
(minutes)
United 12 210 11 234
American 12 210 12 236

Flights By Time of Day Flight Time By Day Chart

This one is pretty self explanatory, it represents the number of flights that leave the gate in a given hour of the day. The tricky thing here is that this is normally not a whole number since it is an average over 52 weeks. Partial numbers may indicate that a flight may be seasonal or may take off at different times due to different operational factors.

Time Count
11am 0.2
7am 0.55
10am 0.38
0am 0.01
11pm 0.79
1pm 0.19
2pm 0.46
6am 0.41
5am 0.08

Flights By Month Flights By Month Chart

The quantity of flights from Sacramento to Chicago that take off in a given month of the year. This number changes because some flights are seasonal, and almost all flights have uneven demand througout the year.

Month Count
January 64
February 80
March 93
April 82
May 90
June 91
July 114
August 149
September 111
October 107
November 64
December 80

Flights By Day Of Week Flights By Day of Week Chart

The quantity of flights from Sacramento to Chicago that take off on a given day of the week. Some routes only have enough demand to sustain a few trips a week, while others have many flights a day. This number is also an average across the year, and hence may not be a whole number.

Day Count
Monday 3.13
Tuesday 3.06
Wednesday 2.96
Thursday 3.12
Friday 3.17
Saturday 3.04
Sunday 3.15

Flight per Airline (per Week) Flights By Airline Chart

How many times an airline flies this route in a week. Different factors play into how often a carrier chooses to fly a given route including it's need to connect disparate routes, and demand.

Airline Flights per Week
United 0
American 0

Flight Time By Time of Day Flight Time by Time of Day Chart

The total flight time varies by each hour of the day due to factors such as airport traffic. More flights leaving an airport may cause higher taxi in or taxi out times. See the description of the average timeline above for a deeper discussion of each of these times.

Time Taxi Out
(minutes)
In the Air
(minutes)
Taxi In
(minutes)
Total
(minutes)
11am 12 207 11 233
7am 12 210 12 236
10am 12 212 12 235
0am 13 202 11 226
11pm 12 208 7 228
1pm 11 210 20 244
2pm 13 209 17 244
6am 13 211 13 237
5am 11 215 12 238
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.