Route reliability record
PDX→JFK
Portland to New York
- Flights
- 924
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 2,454 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route earns an A. Close to nine flights in ten arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 10 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about an hour. That rests on 924 PDX to JFK flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 550 at 91.0% on time.
Best time to fly PDX to JFK: a 8pm–5am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 92.8% of the time and Saturday flights 91.3%, against 87.5% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 10 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 102 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
87.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 891 completed flights
Avg delay
65 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.16%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
91.0% on time across 550 flights
These figures cover 924 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 14 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.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on PDX to JFK
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 91.0% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 82.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 374 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 550 | 91.0% | 72 min | 2.36% | A |
| Alaska Airlines | 374 | 82.5% | 60 min | 1.87% | B |
Delta leads Alaska by 9 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Flight by flight
Flights on PDX to JFK
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 Portland to New York
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. PDX → JFKPortland to New York | Delta Air Lines | 88.9% | 91.0% | 2.36% | 8pm–5am, Fri | DL 451 07:00 |
| 2. PDX → EWRPortland to Newark | Alaska Airlines | 85.7% | 87.2% | 1.72% | 8pm–5am, Wed | AS 294 07:40 |
| 3. PDX → JFKPortland to New York | Alaska Airlines | 81.0% | 82.5% | 1.87% | 5am–8am, Sat | AS 18 07:05 |
| 4. PDX → EWRPortland to Newark | United Airlines | 80.6% | 82.0% | 1.74% | 8pm–5am, Fri | UA 1802 22:52 |
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 16 points, against 9 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am617 flights88.8%
- 8am–11am111 flights76.5%
- 11am–2pm69 flights83.8%
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am127 flights92.8%
Scale runs 70% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is the strongest at 92.8% on time. The full set of windows spans 16 points.
Explore
Filter PDX to JFK 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 PDX to JFK, the best departure window is 8pm–5am at 92.8% on time and the worst is 8am–11am at 76.5%, a wide gap of 16.3 points. All US flights leaving 8pm–5am ran 70.1%.
- 5–8am88.8%
- 8–11am76.5%
- 11am–2pm83.8%
- 2–5pm—
- 5–8pm—
- 8pm–5am92.8%
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 17 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.
Delays peak in September, when the on-time rate falls to 78.4%. March is the strongest month at 95.2%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 17 points. August was the busiest month here, with 103 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 91.3% on time and Monday the weakest at 79.5%, a spread of 12 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
National Airspace System accounts for 63% of the 7,239 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 63%National Airspace System
- 27%Carrier
- 9%Late-arriving aircraft
- 0%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
63% 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 4,572 minutes out of 7,239, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 7,239 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.16% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 1.41%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.1% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
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 71.4% on time across 924 flights, 16 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 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 JFK 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 87.5% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 891 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PDX to JFK questions
How often is PDX to JFK delayed?
About one flight in eight arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 12.5% of the 924 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on PDX to JFK?
Delta Air Lines leads at 91.0% on time across 550 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 82.5%, a gap of 9 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 PDX to JFK?
The 8pm–5am departure window is the strongest at 92.8% on time. The 8am–11am window is the weakest at 76.5%, 16 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 September delays on PDX to JFK?
September is the weakest month at 78.4% on time, compared with 95.2% in March. Across the year that is 17 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
- JFK to PDX — the return legseparate record
- Portland International (PDX) delay statistics
- John F. Kennedy International (JFK) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on PDX to JFK91.0%
- Alaska Airlines on PDX to JFK82.5%
- PDX to SEA, a related route84.9%
- LAX to JFK, a related route77.5%
- PDX to LAX, a related route86.6%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record91.0%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record82.5%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
Direction matters. PDX to JFK and JFK to PDX 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.