Route profile
PDX→IAH
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Portland to Houston, 1,825 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 79% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,128 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
PDX → IAH arrives on time 85.8% of the time; the return trip, IAH → PDX, arrives on time 79.3% of the time, a 6.4-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
PDX → IAH spends 25.9 minutes on the ground on a 1,825-mile trip: 14.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PDX and 11.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at IAH.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where PDX to IAH differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PDX to IAH is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 2 PM: 84.7% arrive on time, 10.9 points ahead of the 73.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 10.1 points.
PDX to IAH holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 85.4% on time to their 75.3%, a 10.1 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 10.6 points.
April is kinder to PDX to IAH than to routes of similar length: 92.3% on time against 79.9%, 12.4 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 12.4 points.
United Airlines does better on PDX to IAH than on its routes of similar length: 86.3% on time here, 80.2% there, 6.1 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 6.4 points.
PDX to IAH against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 84.7% | routes of similar length | 73.8% | +10.9 pts | 124 here, 59,020 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 85.4% | routes of similar length | 75.3% | +10.1 pts | 439 here, 179,220 there |
| Month: April | 92.3% | routes of similar length | 79.9% | +12.4 pts | 209 here, 99,282 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 86.3% | routes of similar length | 80.2% | +6.1 pts | 2,655 here, 253,430 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 1,825 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
24 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 3,128 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAH after arriving from PDX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 28% | High risk |
| 45 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 8.2% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.5% | 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 1.18% of the time and diverts 0.32% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,081 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 24 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,128 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PDX → IAH flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 93.1% of the time, against 79.9% for 9 AM–12 PM departures, a gap of 13.2 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 93.4% on time from 1,180 flights
- 8 AM to 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 77.3% on time from 287 flights
- 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 79.1% on time from 594 flights
- 1 PM: 81.0% on time from 367 flights
- 2 PM: 84.7% on time from 125 flights
- 3 PM to 10 PM: too few flights to score
- 11 PM: 83.6% on time from 479 flights
Why PDX → IAH 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 → IAH. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on PDX → IAH, at 40.0%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 93.1% of the time and 9 AM–12 PM departures 79.9%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 2,697 | 86.3% | 1.26% | -10 min | 5.5% |
| Alaska Airlines | 431 | 82.2% | 0.70% | -6 min | 3.3% |
United Airlines flew 86.2% of the 3,128 flights listed.
United Airlines arrived on time 4.1 percentage points more often than Alaska Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 5.7 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 87.0%
- Feb: 91.2%
- Mar: 88.3%
- Apr: 92.3%
- May: 82.5%
- Jun: 81.2%
- Jul: 75.3%
- Aug: 85.6%
- Sep: 93.9%
- Oct: 88.7%
- Nov: 87.2%
- Dec: 87.4%
July is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 18.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (93)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (93)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (63)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (62)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (62)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (63)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (61)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (58)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (62)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (60)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (71)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (90)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (91)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (86)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (88)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (60)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (71)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (66)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (56)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (62)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (60)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (87)
- June 2025: 75.9% from 120 flights
- July 2025: 77.3% from 123 flights
- August 2025: too few flights to score (111)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (96)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (118)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (90)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (105)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (94)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (80)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (91)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (91)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (119)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (115)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (117)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 85.2% against 87.5% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.3 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,128 PDX → IAH 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