Route profile
PDX→ATL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Portland to Atlanta, 2,172 miles.
Right now
Weather conditions are strongly associated with delays and cancellations.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 95% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,446 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
PDX → ATL arrives on time 86.9% of the time; the return trip, ATL → PDX, arrives on time 79.9% of the time, a 7.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
PDX → ATL spends 23.3 minutes on the ground on a 2,172-mile trip: 14.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PDX and 8.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at ATL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route stays close to typical even on its worst days, a smaller gap than 94% of 4,598 comparable routes.
A typical arrival is 9 min early, and the worst tenth are only 29 minutes worse than that.
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 4,598 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where PDX to ATL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PDX to ATL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 2 PM: 90.3% arrive on time, 15.3 points ahead of the 75.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 15.7 points.
PDX to ATL struggles most at 7 AM: 76.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 9.6 points behind the 86.2% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.2 points.
PDX to ATL holds up on Thursdays better than routes of similar length do: 90.0% on time to their 77.7%, a 12.3 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 13.2 points.
August is kinder to PDX to ATL than to routes of similar length: 88.7% on time against 77.1%, 11.6 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 12.2 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on PDX to ATL than on its routes of similar length: 89.1% on time here, 81.3% there, 7.8 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 7.6 points.
PDX to ATL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 90.3% | routes of similar length | 75.0% | +15.3 pts | 370 here, 37,256 there |
| Hour: 7 AM departures | 76.6% | routes of similar length | 86.2% | −9.6 pts | 432 here, 110,298 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 90.0% | routes of similar length | 77.7% | +12.3 pts | 652 here, 165,576 there |
| Month: August | 88.7% | routes of similar length | 77.1% | +11.6 pts | 434 here, 98,601 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 89.1% | routes of similar length | 81.3% | +7.8 pts | 3,877 here, 282,019 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 2,172 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
20 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 4,446 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ATL after arriving from PDX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 28% | High risk |
| 45 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 6.7% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 3.0% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 1.8% | 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 0.76% of the time and diverts 0.45% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,392 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 20 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,446 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PDX → ATL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.6% of the time, against 80.1% for 9 AM–12 PM departures, a gap of 9.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 95.0% on time from 1,055 flights
- 7 AM: 76.6% on time from 435 flights
- 8 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 84.0% on time from 670 flights
- 12 PM: 86.4% on time from 381 flights
- 1 PM: 84.8% on time from 312 flights
- 2 PM: 90.3% on time from 374 flights
- 3 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 92.3% on time from 372 flights
- 10 PM: 88.2% on time from 523 flights
- 11 PM: 78.8% on time from 167 flights
Why PDX → ATL 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
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 PDX → ATL. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 3,928 | 89.1% | 0.81% | -10 min | 2.9% |
| Alaska Airlines | 517 | 70.6% | 0.39% | 3 min | 4.3% |
Delta Air Lines flew 88.4% of the 4,445 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 18.5 percentage points more often than Alaska Airlines 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL662 Delta Air Lines | 6:00 AM | 785 | 94.8% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Thursday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.7 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 86.1%
- Feb: 92.7%
- Mar: 89.3%
- Apr: 84.9%
- May: 84.2%
- Jun: 83.1%
- Jul: 79.5%
- Aug: 88.7%
- Sep: 91.1%
- Oct: 91.7%
- Nov: 91.5%
- Dec: 87.8%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 13.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 86.1% from 139 flights
- August 2023: 91.8% from 137 flights
- September 2023: too few flights to score (108)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (106)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (97)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (91)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (76)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (70)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (91)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (91)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (114)
- June 2024: 90.5% from 137 flights
- July 2024: 81.7% from 141 flights
- August 2024: 87.7% from 139 flights
- September 2024: too few flights to score (107)
- October 2024: 91.3% from 138 flights
- November 2024: 94.5% from 128 flights
- December 2024: 82.9% from 123 flights
- January 2025: too few flights to score (81)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (70)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (102)
- April 2025: 73.9% from 120 flights
- May 2025: 82.4% from 144 flights
- June 2025: 76.4% from 167 flights
- July 2025: 75.4% from 178 flights
- August 2025: 87.0% from 163 flights
- September 2025: 89.0% from 145 flights
- October 2025: 90.3% from 154 flights
- November 2025: 90.6% from 140 flights
- December 2025: 88.4% from 122 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (94)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (80)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (105)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (116)
- May 2026: 87.6% from 129 flights
- June 2026: 83.7% from 149 flights
- July 2026: 76.4% from 154 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 88.5% against 83.9% in the 12 months before — improving by 4.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,446 PDX → ATL 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