Route profile
IAH→PDX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Houston to Portland, 1,825 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 58% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,127 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
IAH → PDX arrives on time 79.3% of the time; the return trip, PDX → IAH, arrives on time 85.8% of the time, a 6.4-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
IAH → PDX spends 25.4 minutes on the ground on a 1,825-mile trip: 21.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IAH and 4.5 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 97% of 5,368 comparable routes.
80.8% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 80.6% 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 IAH to PDX differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IAH to PDX is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 PM: 75.2% arrive on time, 9.8 points ahead of the 65.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.8 points.
IAH to PDX holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 81.3% on time to their 75.3%, a 6 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 6.5 points.
August is kinder to IAH to PDX than to routes of similar length: 83.0% on time against 75.8%, 7.2 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 6.5 points.
IAH to PDX against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 75.2% | routes of similar length | 65.4% | +9.8 pts | 900 here, 39,202 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 81.3% | routes of similar length | 75.3% | +6.0 pts | 445 here, 179,214 there |
| Month: August | 83.0% | routes of similar length | 75.8% | +7.2 pts | 294 here, 106,167 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 1,825 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
43 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 3,127 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at PDX after arriving from IAH.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 37% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 20% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.1% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.5% | 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 0.80% of the time and diverts 0.19% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,096 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 43 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,127 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IAH → PDX flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 85.4% of the time, against 74.9% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 10.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 85.9% on time from 1,001 flights
- 10 AM: 81.6% on time from 125 flights
- 11 AM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 76.4% on time from 445 flights
- 5 PM: 77.0% on time from 335 flights
- 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 72.2% on time from 196 flights
- 8 PM: 75.2% on time from 911 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why IAH → 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 IAH → PDX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on IAH → PDX, at 46.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 85.4% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 74.9%.
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 | 2,696 | 79.5% | 0.78% | -6 min | 7.3% |
| Alaska Airlines | 431 | 78.4% | 0.93% | -5 min | 6.6% |
United Airlines flew 86.2% of the 3,127 flights listed.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA740 United Airlines | 9:30 AM | 864 | 84.8% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Sunday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 4.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 83.3%
- Feb: 81.4%
- Mar: 81.2%
- Apr: 84.7%
- May: 72.0%
- Jun: 69.8%
- Jul: 73.5%
- Aug: 83.0%
- Sep: 85.2%
- Oct: 82.0%
- Nov: 82.1%
- Dec: 83.1%
June is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 15.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (93)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (93)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (63)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (62)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (62)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (62)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (62)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (58)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (62)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (60)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (71)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (90)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (91)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (86)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (88)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (60)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (71)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (65)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (56)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (62)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (60)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (87)
- June 2025: 66.7% from 120 flights
- July 2025: 81.7% from 123 flights
- August 2025: too few flights to score (111)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (96)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (118)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (90)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (105)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (94)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (80)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (91)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (91)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (119)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (115)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (117)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.8% against 80.6% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,127 IAH → 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