Route profile
IAD→PDX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Washington to Portland, 2,327 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 27% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 897 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
IAD → PDX arrives on time 76.7% of the time; the return trip, PDX → IAD, arrives on time 89.7% of the time, a 12.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
IAD → PDX spends 28.9 minutes on the ground on a 2,327-mile trip: 24.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IAD and 4.1 minutes from touchdown to gate at PDX.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Which day you fly matters unusually much here, a wider weekday spread than 92% of 4,467 comparable routes.
81.7% on time on a typical Friday, against 67.5% on a Thursday.
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 4,467 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where IAD to PDX differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IAD to PDX is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 77.7% arrive on time, 4.9 points ahead of the 72.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.9 points.
Thursday is the day IAD to PDX slips furthest against routes of similar length, 67.5% on time where they average 77.5%, 10 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 9.3 points.
In July, IAD to PDX runs 9.3 points below routes of similar length, 61.2% on time to 70.5%. Against all other routes the gap is 8.5 points.
United Airlines’ flights on IAD to PDX arrive on time 76.7% of the time, 4.7 points below the 81.4% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 3.2 points.
IAD to PDX against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 77.7% | routes of similar length | 72.8% | +4.9 pts | 831 here, 61,393 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 67.5% | routes of similar length | 77.5% | −10.0 pts | 123 here, 164,919 there |
| Month: July | 61.2% | routes of similar length | 70.5% | −9.3 pts | 121 here, 135,100 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 76.7% | routes of similar length | 81.4% | −4.7 pts | 889 here, 233,741 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 2,327 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
63 min late
against a median of 4 min early
IAD → PDX has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 4 min early, but the worst tenth are 67 minutes worse than that. If the trip has something unmissable at the end of it, the median is the wrong number to plan against.
Percentiles over 897 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at PDX after arriving from IAD.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 40% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 22% | High risk |
| 60 min | 18% | High risk |
| 90 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.7% | 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 0.78% of the time and diverts 0.11% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 889 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 63 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 897 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Why IAD → PDX runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for IAD → PDX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 897 | 76.7% | 0.78% | -4 min | 10.8% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Friday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 14.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-07 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 73.4% against 76.4% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 897 IAD → 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