Carrier route record
DLATL→PDX
Delta Air Lines · Atlanta to Portland
- Flights
- 1,257
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 81%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Delta Air Lines.
Delta on ATL to PDX lands a B+, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 50 minutes on average. That rests on 1,257 flights, with a median arrival 2 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate Delta on ATL to PDX from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
77.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,243 completed flights
Avg delay
48 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.95%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
78.4%
Every carrier on ATL to PDX, 1,545 flights
These figures cover 1,257 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 2 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
Delta against every carrier on ATL to PDX
Delta flew 1,257 of the 1,545 flights on ATL to PDX, most of the route. Its 77.5% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 78.4%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from American at 100.0% to Delta at 77.5%. Three of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
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 (this page) | 1,257 | 77.5% | 48 min | 0.95% | B+ |
Flight by flight
Delta flight numbers on ATL to PDX
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Departure window
When Delta runs best on this route
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–11am411 flights84.4%
- 11am–2pm134 flights84.3%
- 2pm–5pm135 flights72.9%
- 5pm–8pm406 flights72.0%
- 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 72.0% for the evening 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 411 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Delta on ATL to PDX through the year
September is the best month on the calendar at 93.0% 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 125 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 83.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 70.7%, a spread of 13 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Delta on ATL to PDX runs when it is late
The 280 late arrivals split 131 under half an hour, 91 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 58 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early231 flights18.6%
- Within 15 min732 flights58.9%
- 15–29 min late131 flights10.5%
- 30–59 min late91 flights7.3%
- 1–2 hours late40 flights3.2%
- 2+ hours late18 flights1.4%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 1,243 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
27 of 189 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 14% of them. In the other direction, 118 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at PDX.
The worst days
Worst days for Delta on ATL to PDX
The latest arrival of the period was on 20 October 2025, 6 hours 13 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The five worst days are spread across October, July and November, with no single month standing out.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 20 October 2025 | 6 hours 13 minutes | Carrier |
| 12 July 2026 | 4 hours 46 minutes | Carrier |
| 24 July 2026 | 4 hours 32 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 8 November 2025 | 4 hours 14 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 8 November 2025 | 3 hours 25 minutes | National Airspace System |
Delay causes
Why Delta runs late on this route
Carrier accounts for 42% of the 13,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 42%Carrier
- 33%National Airspace System
- 18%Late-arriving aircraft
- 6%Extreme weather
33% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 4,435 minutes out of 13,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 13,321 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 42%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 5,659 of the 13,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 0.95% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.16%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
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.
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 90.2% on time across 1,257 flights, 13 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 13 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,257 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.
What to do with this
Booking Delta on ATL to PDX
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 93.0% on time and March 61.1%, a swing of 32 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of March before you think about anything else. 1,243 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- ATL to PDX, every carrier
- Delta on PDX to ATL, the return leg
- Alaska Airlines on ATL to PDX82.4%
- Delta Air Lines network-wide record
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- Portland International (PDX) delay statistics
- 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
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.