Route reliability record
EWR→PDX
Newark to Portland
- Flights
- 923
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 2,434 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a B. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 923 EWR to PDX flights, of which United Airlines flew 516 at 76.8% on time.
Best time to fly EWR to PDX: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.2% of the time and Tuesday flights 79.7%, against 75.9% 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
75.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 906 completed flights
Avg delay
75 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.73%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
76.8% on time across 516 flights
These figures cover 923 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on EWR to PDX
The two carriers here are closely matched: 2 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 516 | 76.8% | 73 min | 1.94% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 407 | 74.8% | 77 min | 1.47% | C |
No carrier stands out. United tops the table at 76.8%, 2 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.
Flight by flight
Flights on EWR 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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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Newark to Portland
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 2 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. EWR → PDXNewark to Portland | United Airlines | 75.3% | 76.8% | 1.94% | 5am–8am, Thu | — |
| 2. EWR → PDXNewark to Portland | Alaska Airlines | 73.7% | 74.8% | 1.47% | 5am–8am, Mon | AS 290 17:05 |
| 3. JFK → PDXNew York to Portland | Alaska Airlines | 71.6% | 73.2% | 2.14% | 8am–11am, Wed | AS 19 17:29 |
| 4. JFK → PDXNew York to Portland | Delta Air Lines | 68.5% | 70.3% | 2.55% | 8am–11am, Wed | DL 684 17:59 |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
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 29 points, against 2 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am235 flights89.2%
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm—
- 2pm–5pm33 flights60.6%
- 5pm–8pm655 flights71.9%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.2% of the time, against 60.6% for the afternoon window. That is 29 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 655 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter EWR 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 EWR to PDX, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.2% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 60.6%, a wide gap of 28.6 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.2%
- 8–11am—
- 11am–2pm—
- 2–5pm60.6%
- 5–8pm71.9%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 39 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.
December is the weak month at 50.0% on time, against 88.8% in September. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. July was the busiest month here, with 122 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 79.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 68.5%, a spread of 11 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 16,000 reported delay minutes.
- 35%National Airspace System
- 32%Late-arriving aircraft
- 22%Carrier
- 10%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
35% 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 5,806 minutes out of 16,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 16,372 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 89.2% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.73% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.11%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
8.7% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 2,434 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 84.3% on time across 923 flights, 8 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 8 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 923 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in PDX after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 923 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 75.9% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 906 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
EWR to PDX questions
How often is EWR to PDX delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 24.1% of the 923 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on EWR to PDX?
United Airlines leads at 76.8% on time across 516 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 74.8%, a gap of 2 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 EWR to PDX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.2% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 60.6%, 29 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 December delays on EWR to PDX?
December is the weakest month at 50.0% on time, compared with 88.8% in September. Across the year that is 39 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 EWR — the return legseparate record
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Portland International (PDX) delay statistics
- United Airlines on EWR to PDX76.8%
- Alaska Airlines on EWR to PDX74.8%
- EWR to MCO, a related route77.9%
- SEA to PDX, a related route82.2%
- EWR to ATL, a related route76.9%
- United Airlines on-time record76.8%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record74.8%
- 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. EWR to PDX and PDX to EWR 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.