Route reliability record
PHX→PDX
Phoenix to Portland
- Flights
- 3,731
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 1,010 mi
- Carriers
- 6
This route lands a B+, about a point better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in five arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 55 minutes on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 3,731 flights, of which Alaska Airlines flew 1,372 at 87.9% on time.
Alaska Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 87.9% on time across 1,372 flights.
Key figures
On time
78.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,715 completed flights
Avg delay
54 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.38%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
Alaska
87.9% on time across 1,372 flights
These figures cover 3,731 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 4 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 PHX to PDX
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Alaska Airlines arrives on time 87.9% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 69.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,273 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 95 | 90.5% | 87 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,372 | 87.9% | 57 min | 0.29% | A+ |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 85 | 83.5% | 61 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 35 | 82.9% | 67 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 871 | 75.9% | 64 min | 0.46% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,273 | 69.5% | 47 min | 0.47% | 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.
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 22 points, against 18 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am547 flights90.2%
- 8am–11am654 flights86.1%
- 11am–2pm533 flights83.4%
- 2pm–5pm607 flights76.4%
- 5pm–8pm793 flights71.6%
- 8pm–5am597 flights68.0%
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.2% of the time, against 68.0% for the overnight window. That is 22 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.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 19 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.
June is the worst month at 69.1% on time, 19 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 83.3% on time and Sunday the weakest at 74.6%. 9 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. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 57% of the 43,000 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.
- 57%Late-arriving aircraft
- 35%Carrier
- 7%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
57% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 43,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 57 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 42,970 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 35%, 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 15,000 of the 43,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.38%, 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
6.0% 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 about 55 minutes kind, 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. 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 80.0% on time across 3,733 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 3,731 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: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 87.8% on time and June 69.1%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 3,715 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PHX to PDX questions
How often is PHX to PDX delayed?
About one flight in five arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.3% of the 3,731 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 55 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on PHX to PDX?
Alaska Airlines leads at 87.9% on time across 1,372 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 69.5%, 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 90.2% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 68.0%, 22 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 June delays on PHX to PDX?
June is the weakest month at 69.1% on time, compared with 87.8% in February. Across the year that is 19 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
- Frontier Airlines on-time record90.5%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record87.9%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record83.5%
- 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. 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.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.