Carrier route record
UAPDX→EWR
United Airlines · Portland to Newark
- Flights
- 521
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 60%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with United Airlines.
United on PDX to EWR earns a B. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 7 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 521 flights, with a median arrival 12 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, United's PDX to EWR record is 7 points better than the US average of 77.6%. That gap is worth roughly 65 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
84.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 508 completed flights
Avg delay
72 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.92%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
83.2%
Every carrier on PDX to EWR, 870 flights
These figures cover 521 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
United against every carrier on PDX to EWR
United flew 521 of the 870 flights on PDX to EWR, most of the route. Its 84.1% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 83.2%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 84.1% to Alaska at 81.9%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
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 (this page) | 521 | 84.1% | 72 min | 1.92% | B |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 349 | 81.9% | 79 min | 2.01% | B |
Flight by flight
United flight numbers on PDX to EWR
Departure window
When United runs best on this route
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 521 flights.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am155 flights82.1%
- 11am–2pm3 flights—
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am363 flights85.3%
Scale runs 75% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The overnight block holds up unusually well at 85.3% on time across 363 flights. Red-eyes fly into empty airspace and empty gates, and they are the first rotation of the aircraft's day rather than the last. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 363 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
United on PDX to EWR through the year
December is the weak month at 71.0% on time, against 90.0% in April. 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 62 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 96.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.4%. 25 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why United runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. National Airspace System accounts for 46% of the 5,851 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.
- 46%National Airspace System
- 28%Carrier
- 25%Late-arriving aircraft
- 1%Extreme weather
46% 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 2,706 minutes out of 5,851, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 5,851 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.92% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.58%.
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 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 79.3% on time across 521 flights, 5 points below 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 5 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 521 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 United on PDX to EWR
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 521 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 84.1% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 508 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- PDX to EWR, every carrier
- United on EWR to PDX, the return leg
- Alaska Airlines on PDX to EWR81.9%
- United Airlines network-wide record
- Portland International (PDX) delay statistics
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
- Late aircraft, weather, or the airline: what actually causes US flight delays
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.