Carrier route record

ASIAH→PDX

Alaska Airlines · Houston to Portland

Flights: 353
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Share of route: 29%
Carriers: 2

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Alaska Airlines.

Alaska on IAH to PDX lands a B, about a point better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 353 flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, 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.

On time

78.7%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 348 completed flights

Avg delay

63 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.13%

National rate is 1.81%

Whole route

81.1%

Every carrier on IAH to PDX, 1,233 flights

These figures cover 353 flights between July 2025 and June 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.

Carrier by carrier

Alaska against every carrier on IAH to PDX

Alaska flew 353 of the 1,233 flights on IAH to PDX, about 29% of it. Its 78.7% on time is 2 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 81.1%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 82.0% to Alaska at 78.7%.

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.

On-time performance by carrier on IAH to PDX
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
United Airlines	880	82.0%	68 min	0.57%	B+
Alaska Airlines (this page)thin sample	353	78.7%	63 min	1.13%	B

Flight by flight

Alaska flight numbers on IAH to PDX

AS 142117:5078.7% · 352 flights

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 14 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am—
8am–11am—
11am–2pm—
2pm–5pm35 flights91.2%
5pm–8pm318 flights77.4%
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 77.4%. 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 202592 flights84.6%
Oct–Dec 202590 flights79.5%
Jan–Mar 202680 flights72.2%
Apr–Jun 202691 flights77.8%

Scale runs 65% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 78.7% 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 84.6% on time and its weakest Jan–Mar 2026 at 72.2%, a swing of 12 points on roughly 88 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 82.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 74.5%. 8 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Delay causes

Why Alaska runs late on this route

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 55% of the 4,669 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.

Late-arriving aircraft
55%
National Airspace System
20%
Carrier
14%
Extreme weather
9%
Security
2%

55% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 4,669 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 4,669 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 1.13% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.28%.

Connections and stage length

What a delay here costs

5.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says 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 83.1% on time across 353 flights, 4 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 4 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 78.7% 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.

Where to go next

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