Route profile
PDX→BOS
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Portland to Boston, 2,537 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 39% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,052 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
PDX → BOS arrives on time 76.1% of the time; the return trip, BOS → PDX, arrives on time 74.9% of the time.
PDX → BOS spends 28.6 minutes on the ground on a 2,537-mile trip: 18.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PDX and 10.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at BOS.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
The airline matters unusually much on this route, a wider carrier-to-carrier gap than 96% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Alaska Airlines arrived on time 81.7% of the time, against 59.7% for JetBlue, flying the exact same route.
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 2,692 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where PDX to BOS differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PDX to BOS struggles most at 10 PM: 59.0% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 23 points behind the 82.0% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.7 points.
Tuesday is the day PDX to BOS slips furthest against routes of similar length, 74.6% on time where they average 81.7%, 7.1 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 7 points.
In September, PDX to BOS runs 15.3 points below routes of similar length, 66.5% on time to 81.8%. Against all other routes the gap is 15.9 points.
June is kinder to PDX to BOS than to routes of similar length: 80.5% on time against 74.4%, 6.1 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7.8 points.
Alaska Airlines does better on PDX to BOS than on its routes of similar length: 81.7% on time here, 75.9% there, 5.8 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 3.7 points.
PDX to BOS against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 10 PM departures | 59.0% | routes of similar length | 82.0% | −23.0 pts | 229 here, 53,129 there |
| Weekday: Tuesday | 74.6% | routes of similar length | 81.7% | −7.1 pts | 248 here, 127,443 there |
| Month: September | 66.5% | routes of similar length | 81.8% | −15.3 pts | 188 here, 74,051 there |
| Month: June | 80.5% | routes of similar length | 74.4% | +6.1 pts | 277 here, 81,538 there |
| Airline: Alaska Airlines | 81.7% | routes of similar length | 75.9% | +5.8 pts | 1,507 here, 159,205 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 2,537 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
47 min late
against a median of 3 min early
Percentiles over 2,052 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at BOS after arriving from PDX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 42% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 23% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.5% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.1% | 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 0.93% of the time and diverts 0.34% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,026 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 47 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,052 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PDX → BOS flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 82.5% of the time, against 65.0% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 17.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 84.4% on time from 501 flights
- 8 AM: 77.7% on time from 207 flights
- 9 AM: 84.1% on time from 158 flights
- 10 AM: 76.5% on time from 191 flights
- 11 AM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 79.9% on time from 300 flights
- 10 PM: 59.0% on time from 232 flights
- 11 PM: 72.7% on time from 261 flights
Why PDX → BOS 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for PDX → BOS. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines | 1,522 | 81.7% | 0.66% | -5 min | 4.0% |
| JetBlue | 530 | 59.7% | 1.70% | 5 min | 17.9% |
Alaska Airlines flew 74.2% of the 2,052 flights listed. JetBlue cancelled 1.70% of its flights here against 0.66% for Alaska Airlines.
Alaska Airlines arrived on time 22.0 percentage points more often than JetBlue 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AS358 Alaska Airlines | 7:00 AM | 1,055 | 81.6% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Sunday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 7.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.8% against 76.8% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,052 PDX → BOS 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