Route profile
PDX→BUR
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Portland to Burbank, 817 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 81% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,220 flights. How this is calculated
PDX → BUR arrives on time 82.9% of the time; the return trip, BUR → PDX, arrives on time 87.7% of the time, a 4.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
PDX → BUR spends 22.4 minutes on the ground on an 817-mile trip: 15.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PDX and 6.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at BUR.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where PDX to BUR differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PDX to BUR is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 84.9% arrive on time, 17.6 points ahead of the 67.3% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 15.1 points.
PDX to BUR holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 86.6% on time to their 78.7%, a 7.9 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7.5 points.
July is kinder to PDX to BUR than to routes of similar length: 82.1% on time against 68.4%, 13.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 12.4 points.
PDX to BUR against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 84.9% | routes of similar length | 67.3% | +17.6 pts | 403 here, 133,043 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 86.6% | routes of similar length | 78.7% | +7.9 pts | 387 here, 293,276 there |
| Month: July | 82.1% | routes of similar length | 68.4% | +13.7 pts | 431 here, 253,237 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 817 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
27 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 3,220 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at BUR after arriving from PDX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 37% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 16% | High risk |
| 60 min | 9.2% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.6% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.8% | 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 1.09% of the time and diverts 0.25% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,177 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 27 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,220 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PDX → BUR flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 91.0% of the time, against 78.5% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 12.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 88.6% on time from 145 flights
- 8 AM: 92.3% on time from 278 flights
- 9 AM: 87.4% on time from 257 flights
- 10 AM: 81.3% on time from 384 flights
- 11 AM to 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 83.2% on time from 381 flights
- 3 PM: 82.6% on time from 150 flights
- 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 84.9% on time from 404 flights
- 6 PM: 79.4% on time from 210 flights
- 7 PM: 78.2% on time from 782 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why PDX → BUR 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 PDX → BUR. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on PDX → BUR, at 45.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 91.0% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 78.5%.
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 | 2,468 | 83.7% | 1.26% | -5 min | 4.2% |
| Southwest Airlines | 340 | 77.6% | 0.29% | -3 min | 8.3% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 321 | 83.7% | 0.62% | -6 min | 2.8% |
Alaska Airlines flew 78.9% of the 3,129 flights listed.
SkyWest Airlines arrived on time 6.1 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Other ways to fly Portland to Los Angeles
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PDX→LAX Portland to Los Angeles | 13,548 | 87.8% | 0.85% | -10 min | 84 |
| PDX→BUR this route Portland to Burbank | 3,220 | 82.9% | 1.09% | -5 min | 77 |
PDX → LAX is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 87.8% on time, against 82.9% for PDX → BUR.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 6.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 82.2%
- Feb: 87.1%
- Mar: 80.1%
- Apr: 89.6%
- May: 84.6%
- Jun: 81.4%
- Jul: 82.1%
- Aug: 79.9%
- Sep: 87.0%
- Oct: 86.0%
- Nov: 83.9%
- Dec: 75.3%
December is historically the weakest month and April the strongest, a spread of 14.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (116)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (118)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (108)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (111)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (93)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (98)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (79)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (47)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (84)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (90)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (108)
- June 2024: 77.4% from 134 flights
- July 2024: 78.5% from 136 flights
- August 2024: too few flights to score (111)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (59)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (70)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (102)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (68)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (53)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (57)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (57)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (62)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (79)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (92)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (89)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (81)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (78)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (86)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (100)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (71)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (66)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (83)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (68)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (91)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (90)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (92)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 86.2% against 84.3% in the 12 months before — improving by 1.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,220 PDX → BUR 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