Airport month record

PDXOCT

Portland International in October 2025

Departures: 5,493
Month: October 2025
National, same month: 79.7%
Carriers: 9

Historical statistics for October 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s October. For today’s conditions at PDX, see live FAA status.

PDX in October lands a B+, 2 points better than the national rate of 79.7%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 55 minutes on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 5,493 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 658 at 92.7% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the five carriers covered here at 92.7% on time across 658 flights.

On time

82.1%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 5,449 completed departures

Avg delay

53 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.64%

Nationally in October: 0.53%

Whole year

82.6%

PDX across all twelve months

These figures cover 5,493 departures from Portland International in October 2025. 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

October next to PDX's other months

Against PDX's own year, October ran level with the twelve-month rate of 82.6%, which makes it number eight of twelve months, best first. Either side of it, September ran 83.7% on time and November 84.2%, 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 (this page)	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	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 October

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 5,493 flights.

5am–8am1,261 flights85.6%
8am–11am1,041 flights77.3%
11am–2pm782 flights86.1%
2pm–5pm912 flights79.1%
5pm–8pm830 flights79.1%
8pm–5am667 flights86.0%

Scale runs 70% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The best window here is not the first bank but the 11am–2pm slot at 86.1% on time, ahead of 8am–11am at 77.3%. Where the curve peaks mid-day rather than at dawn, the constraint is usually congestion at one end rather than the aircraft's own rotation. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 1,261 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Sunday is the strongest day at 84.9% on time and Thursday the weakest at 78.0%. 7 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at PDX in October

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 92.7% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 77.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 726 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at PDX in October 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Alaska Airlines	1,864	78.5%	46 min	1.18%	B
SkyWest Airlines	1,002	84.8%	57 min	0.30%	B+
Southwest Airlines	726	77.8%	43 min	0.00%	B+
United Airlines	662	85.6%	43 min	0.00%	A+
Delta Air Lines	658	92.7%	58 min	0.30%	A+
American Airlinesthin sample	357	82.3%	113 min	1.68%	B
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	104	82.5%	50 min	0.96%	B+
Hawaiian Airlinesthin sample	73	41.7%	76 min	1.37%	F
Allegiant Airthin sample	31	93.5%	88 min	0.00%	A+

The spread between Delta and Southwest is 15 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 15 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of PDX in October

Routes from PDX in October 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
PDX to SEA · Seattle	458	88.2%	42 min	0.44%	A+
PDX to DEN · Denver	395	85.8%	42 min	0.00%	A+
PDX to LAX · Los Angeles	379	87.8%	58 min	0.79%	A+
PDX to SFO · San Franciscothin sample	343	74.9%	54 min	0.29%	C+
PDX to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	296	75.2%	42 min	0.68%	B+
PDX to ORD · Chicagothin sample	264	77.9%	42 min	0.38%	B+
PDX to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	250	76.2%	51 min	0.80%	B+
PDX to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	225	84.3%	149 min	3.56%	B−
PDX to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	211	89.1%	56 min	0.00%	A+
PDX to SMF · Sacramentothin sample	177	83.1%	57 min	0.00%	B+
PDX to SJC · San Josethin sample	158	79.0%	63 min	0.00%	B+
PDX to ATL · Atlantathin sample	154	90.3%	39 min	0.00%	A+
PDX to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	151	97.3%	38 min	0.66%	A+
PDX to SAN · San Diegothin sample	143	73.0%	46 min	0.70%	C+
PDX to SNA · Santa Anathin sample	143	84.3%	39 min	1.40%	B
PDX to IAH · Houstonthin sample	118	81.2%	45 min	0.85%	B+
PDX to ANC · Anchoragethin sample	117	73.5%	49 min	0.00%	C+
PDX to OAK · Oaklandthin sample	107	74.8%	44 min	0.00%	C+
PDX to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	93	81.1%	47 min	1.08%	B
PDX to BOI · Boisethin sample	89	86.4%	40 min	1.12%	A
PDX to GEG · Spokanethin sample	88	81.6%	50 min	1.14%	B
PDX to EWR · Newarkthin sample	87	77.0%	77 min	0.00%	B+
PDX to EUG · Eugenethin sample	80	91.1%	54 min	1.25%	A
PDX to BUR · Burbankthin sample	78	83.3%	66 min	0.00%	B+
PDX to HNL · Honoluluthin sample	73	41.7%	76 min	1.37%	F

Delay causes

What held PDX up in October

Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 52,000 reported delay minutes.

Carrier
39%
Late-arriving aircraft
32%
National Airspace System
28%
Extreme weather
1%
Security
0%

The largest share of delay minutes, 39%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 20,000 of the 52,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 52,206 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.64%, below the national 0.53% 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 4.1% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 6.3% 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.

What to do with this

Flying from PDX in October

For a October trip through PDX: expect 82.1% on time and 0.64% cancelled, going by October 2025. The 11am–2pm window was the strongest part of the day.

Portland International (PDX), the whole year
PDX in July75.7%
PDX in August80.9%
PDX in September83.7%
PDX in November84.2%
PDX in December79.3%
PDX in January85.6%
PDX in February86.3%
PDX in March86.3%
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