Route reliability record
PHX→PDX
Phoenix to Portland
- Flights
- 3,768
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,010 mi
- Carriers
- 6
This route lands a B+, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 55 minutes on average. That rests on 3,768 PHX to PDX flights, of which Alaska Airlines flew 1,437 at 85.8% on time.
Best time to fly PHX to PDX: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.3% of the time and Tuesday flights 82.9%, against 77.4% for the route overall.
Alaska Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 85.8% on time across 1,437 flights.
Key figures
On time
77.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,749 completed flights
Avg delay
54 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.45%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Alaska
85.8% on time across 1,437 flights
These figures cover 3,768 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 3 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 PHX to PDX
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Alaska Airlines arrives on time 85.8% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 67.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,268 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 77 | 92.2% | 79 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,437 | 85.8% | 53 min | 0.35% | A+ |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 84 | 83.3% | 61 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 36 | 80.6% | 62 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 866 | 75.5% | 69 min | 0.58% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,268 | 67.6% | 46 min | 0.55% | C+ |
The spread between Alaska and Southwest is 18 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 18 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on PHX 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 Phoenix to Portland
Every airline on this route, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time, with its best departure time and most punctual flight number. No nearby airport pair beat these.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. PHX → PDXPhoenix to Portland | Alaska Airlines | 85.5% | 85.8% | 0.35% | 5am–8am, Tue | AS 511 07:00 |
| 2. PHX → PDXPhoenix to Portland | American Airlines | 75.1% | 75.5% | 0.58% | 8am–11am, Tue | — |
| 3. PHX → PDXPhoenix to Portland | Southwest Airlines | 67.2% | 67.6% | 0.55% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
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 23 points, against 18 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am519 flights89.3%
- 8am–11am637 flights85.7%
- 11am–2pm575 flights82.1%
- 2pm–5pm603 flights75.1%
- 5pm–8pm793 flights69.6%
- 8pm–5am641 flights66.8%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.3% of the time, against 66.8% for the overnight window. That is 23 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 793 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PHX 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 PHX to PDX, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.3% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 66.8%, a wide gap of 22.5 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.3%
- 8–11am85.7%
- 11am–2pm82.1%
- 2–5pm75.1%
- 5–8pm69.6%
- 8pm–5am66.8%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 20 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.
July is the worst month at 67.7% on time, 20 points below February, the best at 87.8%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 411 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 82.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 72.8%, a spread of 10 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 56% of the 46,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 56%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 7%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
56% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 46,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 56 to one. The split is drawn from 45,960 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 36%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 16,000 of the 46,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.45%, below the national 1.89% 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
6.2% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last about 55 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 1,010 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.
The return leg runs 79.4% on time across 3,768 flights, within 2 points 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 3,768 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in PDX after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 87.8% on time and July 67.7%, a swing of 20 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 3,749 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PHX to PDX questions
How often is PHX to PDX delayed?
Roughly one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 22.6% of the 3,768 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 55 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on PHX to PDX?
Alaska Airlines leads at 85.8% on time across 1,437 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 67.6%, a gap of 18 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 PHX to PDX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.3% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 66.8%, 23 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 July delays on PHX to PDX?
July is the weakest month at 67.7% on time, compared with 87.8% in February. Across the year that is 20 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 PHX — the return legseparate record
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- Portland International (PDX) delay statistics
- Alaska Airlines on PHX to PDX85.8%
- American Airlines on PHX to PDX75.5%
- Southwest Airlines on PHX to PDX67.6%
- PHX to DEN, a related route76.7%
- SEA to PDX, a related route82.2%
- PHX to LAX, a related route82.1%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record92.2%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record85.8%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record83.3%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. PHX to PDX and PDX to PHX 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.