Route profile
PDX→DCA
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Portland to Washington, 2,350 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 91% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,121 flights. How this is calculated
PDX → DCA arrives on time 80.7% of the time; the return trip, DCA → PDX, arrives on time 75.6% of the time, a 5.1-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
PDX → DCA spends 26.2 minutes on the ground on a 2,350-mile trip: 15.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PDX and 10.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at DCA.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where PDX to DCA differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PDX to DCA struggles most at 9 AM: 76.7% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 3.8 points behind the 80.5% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.6 points.
PDX to DCA holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 83.4% on time to their 76.1%, a 7.3 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 8.6 points.
Alaska Airlines does better on PDX to DCA than on its routes of similar length: 80.7% on time here, 76.1% there, 4.6 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 2.7 points.
PDX to DCA against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 AM departures | 76.7% | routes of similar length | 80.5% | −3.8 pts | 575 here, 70,830 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 83.4% | routes of similar length | 76.1% | +7.3 pts | 157 here, 156,821 there |
| Airline: Alaska Airlines | 80.7% | routes of similar length | 76.1% | +4.6 pts | 1,108 here, 166,063 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 2,350 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
29 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 1,121 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DCA after arriving from PDX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 35% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 9.7% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 3.2% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 1.9% | 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 0.36% of the time and diverts 0.80% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,108 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 29 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,121 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Why PDX → DCA runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
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 → DCA. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
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 | 1,121 | 80.7% | 0.36% | -6 min | 3.2% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| AS10 Alaska Airlines | 8:00 AM | 1,121 | 80.7% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 7.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 85.6% against 77.9% in the 12 months before — improving by 7.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,121 PDX → DCA 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