Airport month record

PDXMAR

Portland International in March 2026

Departures: 5,113
Month: March 2026
National, same month: 75.7%
Carriers: 7

Historical statistics for March 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s March. For today’s conditions at PDX, see live FAA status.

PDX in March 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 11 points better than the national rate of 75.7%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs a little over an hour. That rests on 5,113 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 567 at 94.2% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the five carriers covered here at 94.2% on time across 567 flights.

On time

86.3%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 5,053 completed departures

Avg delay

69 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.94%

Nationally in March: 2.90%

Whole year

82.6%

PDX across all twelve months

These figures cover 5,113 departures from Portland International in March 2026. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.

Against the year

March next to PDX's other months

Against PDX's own year, March ran 4 points better than the twelve-month rate of 82.6%, which makes it number two of twelve months, best first. Either side of it, February ran 86.3% on time and April 86.1%, so this month sits in line with its neighbours.

PDX month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	5,864	75.7%	65 min	1.18%	B
August 2025	5,685	80.9%	60 min	0.67%	B+
September 2025	5,269	83.7%	51 min	0.17%	B+
October 2025	5,493	82.1%	53 min	0.64%	B+
November 2025	4,976	84.2%	59 min	1.51%	B
December 2025	5,124	79.3%	59 min	0.60%	B+
January 2026	4,537	85.6%	66 min	1.41%	A
February 2026	4,182	86.3%	56 min	0.69%	A+
March 2026 (this page)	5,113	86.3%	69 min	0.94%	A+
April 2026	5,040	86.1%	63 min	0.48%	A+
May 2026	5,535	83.9%	62 min	0.42%	B+
June 2026	6,024	80.3%	65 min	0.61%	B+

Departure window

The best time of day to leave PDX in March

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 5,113 flights.

5am–8am1,418 flights91.5%
8am–11am826 flights86.8%
11am–2pm604 flights82.6%
2pm–5pm814 flights85.1%
5pm–8pm747 flights82.1%
8pm–5am704 flights84.1%

Scale runs 75% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.5% of the time, against 82.1% for the evening window. That is 9 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 1,418 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 90.6% on time and Saturday the weakest at 81.5%. 9 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at PDX in March

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 94.2% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 77.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 679 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at PDX in March 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Alaska Airlines	2,176	86.9%	57 min	0.69%	A+
SkyWest Airlines	829	87.3%	83 min	0.97%	A+
Southwest Airlines	679	77.5%	50 min	0.44%	B+
Delta Air Lines	567	94.2%	89 min	1.94%	A
United Airlines	450	87.9%	68 min	0.89%	A+
American Airlinesthin sample	337	83.6%	151 min	2.08%	B
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	66	83.3%	41 min	0.00%	B+

The spread between Delta and Southwest is 17 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 17 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of PDX in March

Routes from PDX in March 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
PDX to PHX · Phoenix	410	84.3%	120 min	0.49%	B+
PDX to SEA · Seattle	380	85.2%	68 min	2.37%	A
PDX to LAX · Los Angeles	367	88.1%	62 min	1.36%	A
PDX to DEN · Denverthin sample	293	88.1%	64 min	0.00%	A+
PDX to SFO · San Franciscothin sample	288	88.9%	65 min	0.00%	A+
PDX to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	257	81.2%	43 min	0.39%	B+
PDX to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	193	92.6%	43 min	1.55%	A
PDX to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	186	86.3%	45 min	1.61%	A
PDX to ORD · Chicagothin sample	181	84.7%	112 min	2.21%	B
PDX to SAN · San Diegothin sample	172	85.4%	41 min	0.58%	A+
PDX to SMF · Sacramentothin sample	158	83.5%	53 min	0.00%	B+
PDX to SNA · Santa Anathin sample	124	90.3%	57 min	0.00%	A+
PDX to PSP · Palm Springsthin sample	117	92.0%	59 min	1.71%	A
PDX to SJC · San Josethin sample	114	86.0%	72 min	0.00%	A+
PDX to ANC · Anchoragethin sample	112	87.5%	68 min	0.00%	A+
PDX to ATL · Atlantathin sample	105	99.0%	111 min	1.90%	A
PDX to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	101	95.9%	41 min	2.97%	A
PDX to OAK · Oaklandthin sample	100	75.0%	55 min	0.00%	B+
PDX to IAH · Houstonthin sample	91	86.5%	102 min	2.20%	A
PDX to BUR · Burbankthin sample	83	85.4%	74 min	1.20%	A
PDX to BOI · Boisethin sample	74	89.2%	106 min	0.00%	A+
PDX to HNL · Honoluluthin sample	74	63.0%	36 min	1.35%	D
PDX to GEG · Spokanethin sample	65	84.4%	48 min	1.54%	B
PDX to EWR · Newarkthin sample	62	82.0%	54 min	1.61%	B
PDX to STS · Santa Rosathin sample	62	88.5%	92 min	0.00%	A+

Delay causes

What held PDX up in March

One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 46% of the 47,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.

Carrier
46%
Late-arriving aircraft
36%
National Airspace System
16%
Extreme weather
3%
Security
0%

36% 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 47,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 14 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 47,438 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 0.94% against a national 2.90%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.23%.

Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.3% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 9.5% 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.

What to do with this

Flying from PDX in March

For a March trip through PDX: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 86.3% on time with 0.94% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.

Portland International (PDX), the whole year
PDX in July75.7%
PDX in August80.9%
PDX in September83.7%
PDX in October82.1%
PDX in November84.2%
PDX in December79.3%
PDX in January85.6%
PDX in February86.3%
PDX in April86.1%
PDX in May83.9%
PDX in June80.3%

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures