Route profile
BOS→PDX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Boston to Portland, 2,537 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Weather conditions are strongly associated with delays and cancellations.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 34% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,050 flights. How this is calculated
BOS → PDX arrives on time 74.9% of the time; the return trip, PDX → BOS, arrives on time 76.1% of the time.
BOS → PDX spends 30.6 minutes on the ground on a 2,537-mile trip: 25.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at BOS and 5.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at PDX.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route has stayed remarkably steady year over year, a smaller swing than 93% of 5,368 comparable routes.
77.6% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 77.2% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07), virtually unchanged.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 5,368 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where BOS to PDX differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
BOS to PDX struggles most at 6 PM: 56.7% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 11.4 points behind the 68.1% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.9 points.
BOS to PDX is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 AM: 93.6% arrive on time, 5 points ahead of the 88.6% those routes manage at that hour.
Thursday is the day BOS to PDX slips furthest against routes of similar length, 69.4% on time where they average 77.1%, 7.7 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 7.4 points.
In July, BOS to PDX runs 4.9 points below routes of similar length, 65.6% on time to 70.5%.
BOS to PDX against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 56.7% | routes of similar length | 68.1% | −11.4 pts | 215 here, 51,865 there |
| Hour: 6 AM departures | 93.6% | routes of similar length | 88.6% | +5.0 pts | 267 here, 50,909 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 69.4% | routes of similar length | 77.1% | −7.7 pts | 294 here, 134,414 there |
| Month: July | 65.6% | routes of similar length | 70.5% | −4.9 pts | 372 here, 110,631 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 2,537 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
51 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 2,050 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at PDX after arriving from BOS.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 40% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 25% | High risk |
| 60 min | 16% | High risk |
| 90 min | 8.3% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.3% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 1.56% of the time and diverts 0.29% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,012 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 51 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,050 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
BOS → PDX flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.1% of the time, against 68.7% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 18.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 93.6% on time from 269 flights
- 7 AM: 89.3% on time from 150 flights
- 8 AM: 73.5% on time from 157 flights
- 9 AM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 68.1% on time from 120 flights
- 5 PM: 69.1% on time from 387 flights
- 6 PM: 56.7% on time from 218 flights
- 7 PM: 72.7% on time from 602 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why BOS → PDX runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for BOS → PDX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on BOS → PDX, at 49.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 87.1% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 68.7%.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines | 1,520 | 78.0% | 1.51% | -8 min | 6.4% |
| JetBlue | 530 | 66.0% | 1.70% | 1 min | 14.5% |
Alaska Airlines flew 74.1% of the 2,050 flights listed.
Alaska Airlines arrived on time 12.0 percentage points more often than JetBlue on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| AS311 Alaska Airlines | 7:59 PM | 757 | 80.5% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 11.9 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.6% against 77.2% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,050 BOS → PDX flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed