Route reliability record
JFK→PDX
New York to Portland
- Flights
- 924
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 2,454 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 6 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 924 JFK to PDX flights, of which Alaska Airlines flew 374 at 73.2% on time.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so this route runs 6 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 59 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
71.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 900 completed flights
Avg delay
68 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.38%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Alaska
73.2% on time across 374 flights
These figures cover 924 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.9% 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 JFK to PDX
The two carriers here are closely matched: 3 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines | 374 | 73.2% | 74 min | 2.14% | C |
| Delta Air Lines | 550 | 70.3% | 64 min | 2.55% | C |
No carrier stands out. Alaska tops the table at 73.2%, 3 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.
Flight by flight
Flights on JFK 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 New York 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 17 points, against 3 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am227 flights83.6%
- 11am–2pm—
- 2pm–5pm23 flights—
- 5pm–8pm658 flights67.0%
- 8pm–5am16 flights—
Scale runs 60% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 83.6% of the time, against 67.0% for the evening window. That is 17 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 658 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter JFK 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 JFK to PDX, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 83.6% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 67.0%, a wide gap of 16.6 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am—
- 8–11am83.6%
- 11am–2pm—
- 2–5pm—
- 5–8pm67.0%
- 8pm–5am—
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 33 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 53.3% on time, against 86.5% 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. August was the busiest month here, with 103 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 76.0% on time and Thursday the weakest at 66.9%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
National Airspace System accounts for 43% of the 17,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%National Airspace System
- 29%Late-arriving aircraft
- 22%Carrier
- 4%Extreme weather
- 2%Security
43% 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 7,489 minutes out of 17,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 17,466 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 83.6% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.38% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.22%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
9.9% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
At 2,454 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 87.5% on time across 924 flights, 16 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 16 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 924 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. 924 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 71.4% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 900 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
JFK to PDX questions
How often is JFK to PDX delayed?
Roughly one flight in three arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 28.6% of the 924 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 JFK to PDX?
Alaska Airlines leads at 73.2% on time across 374 flights. Delta Air Lines is at the other end on 70.3%, a gap of 3 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 JFK to PDX?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 83.6% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 67.0%, 17 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 JFK to PDX?
December is the weakest month at 53.3% on time, compared with 86.5% in September. Across the year that is 33 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 JFK — the return legseparate record
- John F. Kennedy International (JFK) delay statistics
- Portland International (PDX) delay statistics
- Alaska Airlines on JFK to PDX73.2%
- Delta Air Lines on JFK to PDX70.3%
- JFK to LAX, a related route75.4%
- SEA to PDX, a related route82.2%
- JFK to SFO, a related route71.4%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record73.2%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record70.3%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
Direction matters. JFK to PDX and PDX to JFK 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.