Route profile
DCA→PDX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Washington to Portland, 2,350 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 50% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,121 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
DCA → PDX arrives on time 75.6% of the time; the return trip, PDX → DCA, arrives on time 80.7% of the time, a 5.1-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DCA → PDX spends 27.6 minutes on the ground on a 2,350-mile trip: 22.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DCA and 5.1 minutes from touchdown to gate at PDX.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where DCA to PDX differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DCA to PDX is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 79.4% arrive on time, 10.8 points ahead of the 68.6% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 10.9 points.
Wednesday is the day DCA to PDX slips furthest against routes of similar length, 72.0% on time where they average 80.5%, 8.5 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 8.8 points.
DCA to PDX against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 79.4% | routes of similar length | 68.6% | +10.8 pts | 652 here, 60,192 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 72.0% | routes of similar length | 80.5% | −8.5 pts | 157 here, 150,577 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 2,350 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
44 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 1,121 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at PDX after arriving from DCA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 23% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.8% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.7% | Some 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 0.62% of the time and diverts 0.36% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,110 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 44 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,121 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Why DCA → PDX runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s 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 DCA → PDX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DCA → PDX, at 45.6%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late.
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 | 1,121 | 75.6% | 0.62% | -6 min | 7.9% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| AS9 Alaska Airlines | 6:55 PM | 1,121 | 75.6% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Wednesday the least, a gap of 7.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 71.6% against 75.4% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.8 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,121 DCA → 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