Route profile
PDX→AUS
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Portland to Austin, 1,715 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 64% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,422 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
PDX → AUS arrives on time 78.2% of the time; the return trip, AUS → PDX, arrives on time 81.1% of the time, a 2.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
PDX → AUS spends 30.4 minutes on the ground on a 1,715-mile trip: 18.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PDX and 12.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at AUS.
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 91% of 4,467 comparable routes.
85.9% on time on a typical Tuesday, against 72.1% 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 PDX to AUS differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PDX to AUS is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 82.9% arrive on time, 11.4 points ahead of the 71.5% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 13.1 points.
PDX to AUS struggles most at 1 PM: 64.8% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 9.7 points behind the 74.5% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.3 points.
PDX to AUS against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 82.9% | routes of similar length | 71.5% | +11.4 pts | 422 here, 91,773 there |
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 64.8% | routes of similar length | 74.5% | −9.7 pts | 182 here, 75,463 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 1,715 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
36 min late
against a median of 1 min early
Percentiles over 1,422 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at AUS after arriving from PDX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 46% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.3% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.1% | 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 0.91% of the time and diverts 0.21% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,406 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 36 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,422 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PDX → AUS flights departing 3–6 PM arrived on time 82.9% of the time, against 67.8% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 15.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 81.5% on time from 431 flights
- 11 AM: 75.7% on time from 216 flights
- 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 64.8% on time from 185 flights
- 2 PM to 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 82.9% on time from 424 flights
- 6 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why PDX → AUS 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for PDX → AUS. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on PDX → AUS, at 38.7%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 3–6 PM departures arrived on time 82.9% of the time and 12–3 PM departures 67.8%.
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 | 1,422 | 78.2% | 0.91% | -1 min | 5.4% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| AS540 Alaska Airlines | 10:30 AM | 948 | 77.1% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 13.8 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 84.9% against 76.0% in the 12 months before — improving by 8.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,422 PDX → AUS 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