Route reliability record
ATL→PDX
Atlanta to Portland
- Flights
- 1,545
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 2,172 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route lands a B+, about a point better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 50 minutes on average. That rests on 1,545 ATL to PDX flights, with a median arrival 3 minutes early.
Best time to fly ATL to PDX: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 84.4% of the time and Tuesday flights 82.9%, against 78.4% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
78.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,529 completed flights
Avg delay
50 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.91%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
77.5% on time across 1,257 flights
These figures cover 1,545 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 3 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.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on ATL to PDX
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlinesthin sample | 1 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 1 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 286 | 82.4% | 66 min | 0.70% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,257 | 77.5% | 48 min | 0.95% | B+ |
Flight by flight
Flights on ATL to PDX
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 12 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am412 flights84.4%
- 11am–2pm135 flights84.4%
- 2pm–5pm165 flights76.1%
- 5pm–8pm662 flights75.6%
- 8pm–5am171 flights72.4%
Scale runs 65% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 84.4% of the time, against 72.4% for the overnight window. That is 12 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 662 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter ATL to PDX by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On ATL to PDX, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 84.4% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 72.4%, a wide gap of 12.0 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am—
- 8–11am84.4%
- 11am–2pm84.4%
- 2–5pm76.1%
- 5–8pm75.6%
- 8pm–5am72.4%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 27 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
September is the best month on the calendar at 93.1% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. August was the busiest month here, with 156 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 82.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 73.1%, a spread of 10 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
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 17,000 reported delay minutes.
- 37%Carrier
- 31%National Airspace System
- 26%Late-arriving aircraft
- 6%Extreme weather
- 1%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 37%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 6,170 of the 17,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 16,599 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 0.91% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.13%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
5.2% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last about 50 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 2,172 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 88.4% on time across 1,544 flights, 10 points above this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 10 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,545 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in PDX after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 93.1% on time and March 65.7%, a swing of 27 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of March before you think about anything else. 1,529 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
ATL to PDX questions
How often is ATL to PDX delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.6% of the 1,545 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 50 minutes on average.
How reliable is ATL to PDX compared with the rest of the country?
78.4% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of about a point in its favour. That is worth a B+ on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on ATL to PDX?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 84.4% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 72.4%, 12 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 March delays on ATL to PDX?
March is the weakest month at 65.7% on time, compared with 93.1% in September. Across the year that is 27 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
- PDX to ATL — the return legseparate record
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- Portland International (PDX) delay statistics
- Alaska Airlines on ATL to PDX82.4%
- Delta Air Lines on ATL to PDX77.5%
- ATL to LGA, a related route72.3%
- SEA to PDX, a related route82.2%
- ATL to MCO, a related route70.3%
- American Airlines on-time record100.0%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record100.0%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record82.4%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
Direction matters. ATL to PDX and PDX to ATL are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.