Route reliability record
LAX→PDX
Los Angeles to Portland
- Flights
- 4,406
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 833 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route earns a A+. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 9 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs a little over an hour. That rests on 4,406 flights, of which Alaska Airlines flew 1,899 at 90.0% on time.
Alaska Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 90.0% on time across 1,899 flights.
Key figures
On time
86.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,368 completed flights
Avg delay
68 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.84%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
Alaska
90.0% on time across 1,899 flights
These figures cover 4,406 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 12 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
Which airline is most reliable on LAX to PDX
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Alaska Airlines arrives on time 90.0% of the time; SkyWest Airlines manages 76.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 599 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines | 1,899 | 90.0% | 51 min | 0.90% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,690 | 86.2% | 74 min | 0.89% | A+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 218 | 85.1% | 49 min | 1.38% | A |
| SkyWest Airlines | 599 | 76.2% | 87 min | 0.33% | B+ |
The spread between Alaska and SkyWest is 14 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 14 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
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 10 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am709 flights91.5%
- 8am–11am704 flights88.5%
- 11am–2pm631 flights87.6%
- 2pm–5pm965 flights86.8%
- 5pm–8pm774 flights81.1%
- 8pm–5am623 flights83.2%
Scale runs 75% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.5% of the time, against 81.1% for the evening window. That is 10 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 965 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 4,406 flights. The strip shows how much of this route's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.
August is the worst month at 82.3% on time, 9 points below May, the best at 91.3%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. August was the busiest month here, with 412 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 89.6% on time and Friday the weakest at 82.8%. 7 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 61% of the 41,000 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.
- 61%Carrier
- 33%Late-arriving aircraft
- 5%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 61%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 25,000 of the 41,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 40,545 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 91.5% on time here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.84%, below the national 1.81% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
5.2% 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 are the a little over an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 833 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
The return leg runs 87.4% on time across 4,403 flights, within about a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 4,406 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 this route
Put together: avoid the 5pm–8pm departure. It runs 81.1% on time against 91.5% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 10 points is the largest single thing you control here. Alaska Airlines is the strongest operator if the fares are close. 4,368 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
LAX to PDX questions
How often is LAX to PDX delayed?
About one flight in seven arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 13.6% of the 4,406 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on LAX to PDX?
Alaska Airlines leads at 90.0% on time across 1,899 flights. SkyWest Airlines is at the other end on 76.2%, a gap of 14 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 LAX to PDX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.5% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 81.1%, 10 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 August delays on LAX to PDX?
August is the weakest month at 82.3% on time, compared with 91.3% in May. Across the year that is 9 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 LAX — the return legseparate record
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Portland International (PDX) delay statistics
- Alaska Airlines on-time record90.0%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record86.2%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record85.1%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
Direction matters. LAX to PDX and PDX to LAX are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.