Route profile
PDX→OAK
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Portland to Oakland, 543 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 87% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,123 flights. How this is calculated
PDX → OAK arrives on time 82.5% of the time; the return trip, OAK → PDX, arrives on time 82.7% of the time.
PDX → OAK spends 17.0 minutes on the ground on a 543-mile trip: 11.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PDX and 5.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at OAK.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
On-time performance swings unusually widely by time of day here, wider than 91% of 4,023 comparable routes.
96.2% on time for 5–9 AM departures, against 65.5% for 9 PM–5 AM.
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 4,023 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where PDX to OAK differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PDX to OAK is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 3 PM: 83.8% arrive on time, 9 points ahead of the 74.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.1 points.
PDX to OAK holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 85.5% on time to their 80.1%, a 5.4 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 6.4 points.
January is kinder to PDX to OAK than to routes of similar length: 90.5% on time against 79.7%, 10.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 11.4 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on PDX to OAK than on its routes of similar length: 81.8% on time here, 78.5% there, 3.3 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 4.4 points.
PDX to OAK against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 3 PM departures | 83.8% | routes of similar length | 74.8% | +9.0 pts | 142 here, 96,597 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 85.5% | routes of similar length | 80.1% | +5.4 pts | 491 here, 203,259 there |
| Month: January | 90.5% | routes of similar length | 79.7% | +10.8 pts | 359 here, 121,009 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 81.8% | routes of similar length | 78.5% | +3.3 pts | 4,591 here, 436,021 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 543 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 5 min early
Percentiles over 5,123 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at OAK after arriving from PDX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 36% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 9.6% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.3% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.2% | 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 0.59% of the time and diverts 0.02% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,092 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 5,123 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PDX → OAK flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 96.2% of the time, against 65.5% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 30.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 97.5% on time from 324 flights
- 6 AM: 97.9% on time from 617 flights
- 7 AM: 91.8% on time from 246 flights
- 8 AM: 94.4% on time from 197 flights
- 9 AM: 93.8% on time from 307 flights
- 10 AM: 84.2% on time from 534 flights
- 11 AM: 87.8% on time from 231 flights
- 12 PM: 82.1% on time from 180 flights
- 1 PM: 79.3% on time from 170 flights
- 2 PM: 81.3% on time from 243 flights
- 3 PM: 83.8% on time from 142 flights
- 4 PM: 71.2% on time from 366 flights
- 5 PM: 70.6% on time from 481 flights
- 6 PM: 69.1% on time from 223 flights
- 7 PM: 74.4% on time from 160 flights
- 8 PM: 73.9% on time from 233 flights
- 9 PM: 68.1% on time from 378 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why PDX → OAK 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 → OAK. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on PDX → OAK, at 69.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 96.2% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 65.5%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 4,621 | 81.8% | 0.63% | -5 min | 4.5% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 486 | 87.8% | 0.21% | -6 min | 3.3% |
Southwest Airlines flew 90.5% of the 5,107 flights listed.
SkyWest Airlines arrived on time 6.0 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Other ways to fly Portland to San Francisco
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PDX→SFO Portland to San Francisco | 10,724 | 72.8% | 0.86% | -2 min | 60 |
| PDX→OAK this route Portland to Oakland | 5,123 | 82.5% | 0.59% | -5 min | 80 |
PDX → OAK is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 82.5% on time, against 72.8% for PDX → SFO.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 90.5%
- Feb: 87.3%
- Mar: 82.2%
- Apr: 83.7%
- May: 84.0%
- Jun: 73.8%
- Jul: 73.4%
- Aug: 80.0%
- Sep: 82.5%
- Oct: 84.9%
- Nov: 87.8%
- Dec: 84.0%
July is historically the weakest month and January the strongest, a spread of 17.1 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 81.5% from 218 flights
- August 2023: 77.4% from 219 flights
- September 2023: 85.1% from 174 flights
- October 2023: 88.5% from 209 flights
- November 2023: 92.1% from 203 flights
- December 2023: 88.5% from 238 flights
- January 2024: 87.1% from 170 flights
- February 2024: 85.5% from 152 flights
- March 2024: 85.1% from 169 flights
- April 2024: 87.2% from 164 flights
- May 2024: 85.2% from 190 flights
- June 2024: 81.9% from 149 flights
- July 2024: 75.2% from 129 flights
- August 2024: 84.4% from 135 flights
- September 2024: 88.0% from 133 flights
- October 2024: 87.5% from 128 flights
- November 2024: 85.8% from 127 flights
- December 2024: 81.2% from 133 flights
- January 2025: too few flights to score (100)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (92)
- March 2025: 84.0% from 120 flights
- April 2025: 83.6% from 122 flights
- May 2025: 86.5% from 126 flights
- June 2025: too few flights to score (117)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (104)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (99)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (107)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (112)
- December 2025: 78.5% from 121 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (96)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (97)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (100)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (89)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (111)
- June 2026: 70.2% from 124 flights
- July 2026: 69.6% from 127 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.8% against 82.6% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.8 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,123 PDX → OAK 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