Carrier performance at one airport
OO→PDX
SkyWest Airlines at Portland International
- Departures
- 10,587
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #2 of 7
SkyWest Airlines at Portland earns an A+. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 8 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about an hour. That rests on 10,587 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 7,151 at 90.1% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, SkyWest Airlines runs 3 points ahead of the 82.8% weighted average across all carriers at PDX. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
85.3%
10,507 completed departures
Avg delay
64 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.55%
At PDX, this carrier only
Rank here
#2
Of 7 carriers clearing the floor at PDX
These figures cover 11,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 7 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Against the competition
Every carrier at PDX, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 90.1% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 75.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 8,585 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 7,151 | 90.1% | 74 min | 1.08% | A |
| SkyWest Airlines (this page) | 10,587 | 85.3% | 64 min | 0.55% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 24,677 | 83.0% | 46 min | 0.66% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 4,484 | 81.3% | 111 min | 1.83% | B |
| United Airlines | 6,624 | 80.6% | 65 min | 0.59% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 799 | 79.6% | 78 min | 1.25% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 8,585 | 75.7% | 48 min | 0.33% | B+ |
The spread between Delta and Southwest is 14 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 14 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Where SkyWest Airlines flies from PDX
SkyWest Airlines operates 25 routes out of PDX with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PDX to SEA · Seattle | 3,472 | 85.5% | 59 min | 0.58% | A+ |
| PDX to STS · Santa Rosa | 627 | 84.8% | 64 min | 0.32% | B+ |
| PDX to EUG · Eugene | 619 | 90.5% | 55 min | 1.13% | A |
| PDX to SLC · Salt Lake City | 614 | 84.6% | 67 min | 0.16% | B+ |
| PDX to LAX · Los Angeles | 563 | 80.0% | 112 min | 0.36% | B+ |
| PDX to FAT · Fresno | 556 | 85.4% | 81 min | 0.18% | A+ |
| PDX to SJC · San Jose | 491 | 87.3% | 52 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PDX to GEG · Spokane | 464 | 84.2% | 45 min | 0.22% | B+ |
| PDX to SFO · San Franciscothin sample | 363 | 82.8% | 74 min | 0.55% | B+ |
| PDX to TUS · Tucsonthin sample | 318 | 84.9% | 57 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| PDX to MFR · Medfordthin sample | 310 | 87.4% | 58 min | 1.94% | A |
| PDX to SMF · Sacramentothin sample | 301 | 86.0% | 61 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PDX to RDM · Redmondthin sample | 277 | 89.4% | 63 min | 1.44% | A |
| PDX to PSP · Palm Springsthin sample | 230 | 71.7% | 53 min | 1.74% | C |
| PDX to BOI · Boisethin sample | 200 | 89.7% | 72 min | 2.50% | A |
| PDX to BLI · Bellinghamthin sample | 167 | 91.0% | 46 min | 0.60% | A+ |
| PDX to OAK · Oaklandthin sample | 155 | 92.9% | 42 min | 0.65% | A+ |
| PDX to MSO · Missoulathin sample | 126 | 82.5% | 46 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| PDX to IDA · Idaho Fallsthin sample | 111 | 75.7% | 44 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| PDX to RNO · Renothin sample | 99 | 93.9% | 59 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PDX to PHX · Phoenixthin sample | 85 | 90.6% | 151 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PDX to SBP · San Luis Obispothin sample | 84 | 95.2% | 63 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PDX to PSC · Pascothin sample | 83 | 82.9% | 47 min | 1.20% | B |
| PDX to BZN · Bozemanthin sample | 72 | 90.3% | 58 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PDX to ONT · Ontariothin sample | 50 | 84.0% | 49 min | 0.00% | B+ |
Flight by flight
SkyWest Airlines flight numbers from PDX
6 SkyWest Airlines flight numbers leaving PDX flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 11,000 flights.
- 5am–8am1,735 flights87.4%
- 8am–11am1,791 flights84.9%
- 11am–2pm1,190 flights86.1%
- 2pm–5pm2,570 flights86.1%
- 5pm–8pm2,174 flights81.0%
- 8pm–5am1,127 flights88.5%
Scale runs 75% to 95%.
The overnight block holds up unusually well at 88.5% on time across 1,127 flights. Red-eyes fly into empty airspace and empty gates, and they are the first rotation of the aircraft's day rather than the last. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 2,570 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
December is the weak month at 79.7% on time, against 89.6% in April. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. August was the busiest month here, with 1,034 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 45%Carrier
- 30%Late-arriving aircraft
- 14%National Airspace System
- 11%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
Extreme weather accounts for 11% of delay minutes, well above the single-digit share typical across the system. Weather delays are lumpy: they arrive as whole bad days rather than as a steady drag, so the monthly strip above is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 6%, so this operation carries roughly 1.9 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 98,052 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.55%, below the national 1.89% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.7% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
The sample behind these figures is 10,587 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: SkyWest's PDX operation record is 85.3% on time with 0.55% cancelled, worth an A+. The largest single lever is the 8pm–5am departure window, and the numbers below the table are where the reasoning behind that lives. 10,507 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SkyWest Airlines at PDX
How often is SkyWest Airlines at PDX delayed?
About one flight in seven arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 14.7% of the 10,587 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on SkyWest Airlines at PDX?
Delta Air Lines leads at 90.1% on time across 7,151 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 75.7%, a gap of 14 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on SkyWest Airlines at PDX?
The 8pm–5am departure window is the strongest at 88.5% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 81.0%, 8 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are December delays on SkyWest Airlines at PDX?
December is the weakest month at 79.7% on time, compared with 89.6% in April. Across the year that is 10 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.