Carrier performance at one airport
WN→PDX
Southwest Airlines at Portland International
- Departures
- 8,596
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 12
- Rank here
- #7 of 9
Southwest Airlines at Portland lands a B+, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in four arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 50 minutes on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 8,596 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 7,258 at 89.6% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs 6 points behind the 82.7% 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
76.4%
8,547 completed departures
Avg delay
48 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.33%
At PDX, this carrier only
Rank here
#7
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at PDX
These figures cover 8,596 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. On-time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the same threshold the Department of Transportation uses in its own reports. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the on-time rate and counted separately, which is why the cancellation column matters on its own.
Against the competition
Every carrier at PDX, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 89.6% of the time; Hawaiian Airlines manages 58.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 464 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 7,258 | 89.6% | 79 min | 0.96% | A+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 10,519 | 85.4% | 64 min | 0.55% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 23,363 | 83.2% | 47 min | 0.71% | B+ |
| United Airlines | 6,566 | 81.8% | 66 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 4,445 | 80.0% | 104 min | 2.16% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 939 | 78.2% | 75 min | 1.81% | B |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 8,596 | 76.4% | 48 min | 0.33% | B+ |
| Allegiant Air | 413 | 71.2% | 145 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 464 | 58.7% | 71 min | 1.08% | D |
The spread between Delta and Hawaiian is 31 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 31 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Where Southwest Airlines flies from PDX
Southwest Airlines operates 12 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 DEN · Denver | 1,563 | 72.2% | 49 min | 0.26% | C+ |
| PDX to PHX · Phoenix | 1,274 | 75.5% | 50 min | 0.16% | B+ |
| PDX to SMF · Sacramento | 1,205 | 78.5% | 51 min | 0.17% | B+ |
| PDX to OAK · Oakland | 1,181 | 75.8% | 52 min | 0.76% | B+ |
| PDX to LAS · Las Vegas | 1,149 | 77.2% | 46 min | 0.17% | B+ |
| PDX to SJC · San Jose | 973 | 77.3% | 53 min | 0.41% | B+ |
| PDX to MDW · Chicago | 687 | 89.1% | 40 min | 0.73% | A+ |
| PDX to DAL · Dallasthin sample | 230 | 58.1% | 37 min | 0.00% | D+ |
| PDX to SAN · San Diegothin sample | 137 | 75.9% | 29 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| PDX to BWI · Baltimorethin sample | 120 | 75.0% | 43 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| PDX to STL · St. Louisthin sample | 34 | 76.5% | 22 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| PDX to MCI · Kansas Citythin sample | 33 | 78.8% | 36 min | 0.00% | B+ |
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 36 points, against 31 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,477 flights94.7%
- 8am–11am1,468 flights84.1%
- 11am–2pm1,319 flights73.2%
- 2pm–5pm1,304 flights61.5%
- 5pm–8pm1,174 flights59.0%
- 8pm–5am854 flights61.8%
Scale runs 50% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 59.0% on time, against 94.7% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 2,477 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
June is the worst month at 64.7% on time, 25 points below January, the best at 89.5%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. July was the busiest month here, with 928 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 59%Late-arriving aircraft
- 26%Carrier
- 14%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
59% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 97,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 59 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 97,405 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.33%, below the national 1.81% 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.
5.2% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route are the roughly 50 minutes kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 8,596 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: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. January runs 89.5% on time and June 64.7%, a swing of 25 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 8,547 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at PDX
How often is Southwest Airlines at PDX delayed?
About one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.6% of the 8,596 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by roughly 50 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Southwest Airlines at PDX?
Delta Air Lines leads at 89.6% on time across 7,258 flights. Hawaiian Airlines is at the other end on 58.7%, a gap of 31 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 Southwest Airlines at PDX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 94.7% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 59.0%, 36 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 June delays on Southwest Airlines at PDX?
June is the weakest month at 64.7% on time, compared with 89.5% in January. Across the year that is 25 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.