Route profile
PDX→JFK
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Portland to New York, 2,454 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 56% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,955 flights. How this is calculated
PDX → JFK arrives on time 82.3% of the time; the return trip, JFK → PDX, arrives on time 75.1% of the time, a 7.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
PDX → JFK spends 30.3 minutes on the ground on a 2,454-mile trip: 17.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PDX and 12.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at JFK.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where PDX to JFK differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PDX to JFK struggles most at 2 PM: 52.8% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 21.9 points behind the 74.7% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 21.8 points.
PDX to JFK is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 10 PM: 95.6% arrive on time, 14.1 points ahead of the 81.5% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 24 points.
March is kinder to PDX to JFK than to routes of similar length: 91.5% on time against 79.1%, 12.4 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 13.6 points.
In September, PDX to JFK runs 6.9 points below routes of similar length, 75.1% on time to 82.0%. Against all other routes the gap is 7.3 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on PDX to JFK than on its routes of similar length: 87.4% on time here, 81.1% there, 6.3 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 5.9 points.
PDX to JFK against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 52.8% | routes of similar length | 74.7% | −21.9 pts | 180 here, 29,997 there |
| Hour: 10 PM departures | 95.6% | routes of similar length | 81.5% | +14.1 pts | 137 here, 60,741 there |
| Month: March | 91.5% | routes of similar length | 79.1% | +12.4 pts | 189 here, 81,918 there |
| Month: September | 75.1% | routes of similar length | 82.0% | −6.9 pts | 285 here, 82,599 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 87.4% | routes of similar length | 81.1% | +6.3 pts | 1,640 here, 202,857 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 2,454 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.
Why PDX → JFK flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
PDX → JFK cancelled 54 of 2,955 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 55. The reason filed most often was the airline, 53.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 102 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 54 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
29 cancellations, 53.7% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
19 cancellations, 35.2% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
6 cancellations, 11.1% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
54 coded cancellations were recorded on PDX → JFK; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
33 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 2,955 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at JFK after arriving from PDX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 32% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.1% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.2% | 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 1.83% of the time and diverts 0.71% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,880 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 33 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,955 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PDX → JFK flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.0% of the time, against 65.4% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 23.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 89.6% on time from 344 flights
- 7 AM: 88.9% on time from 1,515 flights
- 8 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 70.2% on time from 325 flights
- 2 PM: 52.8% on time from 181 flights
- 3 PM to 9 PM: too few flights to score
- 10 PM: 95.6% on time from 137 flights
- 11 PM: 63.7% on time from 247 flights
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why PDX → JFK 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 → JFK. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,677 | 87.4% | 1.43% | -14 min | 4.6% |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,124 | 78.5% | 2.05% | -3 min | 6.9% |
Delta Air Lines flew 59.9% of the 2,801 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 8.9 percentage points more often than Alaska Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 84.8%
- Feb: 89.1%
- Mar: 91.5%
- Apr: 91.8%
- May: 82.8%
- Jun: 79.9%
- Jul: 70.8%
- Aug: 77.3%
- Sep: 75.1%
- Oct: 83.6%
- Nov: 89.8%
- Dec: 88.0%
July is historically the weakest month and April the strongest, a spread of 21.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 60.5% from 123 flights
- August 2023: too few flights to score (111)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (109)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (111)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (64)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (62)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (61)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (58)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (66)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (90)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (87)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (90)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (90)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (68)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (62)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (62)
- 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: too few flights to score (90)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (93)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (93)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (90)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (93)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (66)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (62)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (62)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (56)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (62)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (60)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (87)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (90)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (93)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 86.9% against 84.2% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,955 PDX → JFK 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