Carrier route record
ASIAH→PDX
Alaska Airlines · Houston to Portland
- Flights
- 353
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 29%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Alaska Airlines.
Alaska on IAH 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 about an hour on average. That rests on 353 flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate Alaska on IAH 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
77.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 348 completed flights
Avg delay
61 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.13%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
80.9%
Every carrier on IAH to PDX, 1,209 flights
These figures cover 353 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 5 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.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
Alaska against every carrier on IAH to PDX
Alaska flew 353 of the 1,209 flights on IAH to PDX, about 29% of it. Its 77.6% on time is 3 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 80.9%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 82.3% to Alaska at 77.6%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 856 | 82.3% | 62 min | 0.23% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlines (this page)thin sample | 353 | 77.6% | 61 min | 1.13% | B |
Flight by flight
Alaska flight numbers on IAH to PDX
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Departure window
When Alaska runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 15 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm—
- 2pm–5pm35 flights91.2%
- 5pm–8pm318 flights76.1%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 70% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The best window here is not the first bank but the 2pm–5pm slot at 91.2% on time, ahead of 5pm–8pm at 76.1%. 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 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 318 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Alaska on IAH to PDX through the year
- Jul–Sep 202530 flights86.7%
- Oct–Dec 202590 flights79.5%
- Jan–Mar 202680 flights72.2%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights77.8%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights77.0%
Scale runs 65% to 90%.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 77.6% on time across 353 flights.
Alaska on IAH to PDX did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 86.7% on time and its weakest Jan–Mar 2026 at 72.2%, a swing of 15 points on roughly 71 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
Across the week, Monday is the strongest day at 83.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 70.6%, a spread of 12 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Alaska on IAH to PDX runs when it is late
Alaska on IAH to PDX often beats the schedule: 88 of 348 completed flights, 25%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 78 late arrivals split 37 under half an hour, 21 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 20 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early88 flights25.3%
- Within 15 min182 flights52.3%
- 15–29 min late37 flights10.6%
- 30–59 min late21 flights6.0%
- 1–2 hours late8 flights2.3%
- 2+ hours late12 flights3.4%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 348 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
A late pushback is often recovered here: of 93 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, 30 still arrived on time. 15 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for Alaska on IAH to PDX
The latest arrival of the period was on 23 October 2025, 4 hours 39 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). On three of the five worst days the largest share was filed as a late-arriving aircraft.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 23 October 2025 | 4 hours 39 minutes | Carrier |
| 2 June 2026 | 4 hours 1 minute | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 15 October 2025 | 3 hours 41 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 24 November 2025 | 3 hours 27 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 20 November 2025 | 3 hours 24 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why Alaska runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 57% of the 4,761 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 57%Late-arriving aircraft
- 18%National Airspace System
- 14%Carrier
- 9%Extreme weather
- 2%Security
57% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 4,761 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 4,761 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.13% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.28%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
5.7% 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 1,825 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 85.4% on time across 353 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. 353 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.
What to do with this
Booking Alaska on IAH to PDX
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 353 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 77.6% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 348 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- IAH to PDX, every carrier
- Alaska on PDX to IAH, the return leg
- United Airlines on IAH to PDX82.3%
- Alaska Airlines network-wide record
- George Bush Intercontinental (IAH) delay statistics
- Portland International (PDX) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
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.