Route profile
PDX→SJC
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Portland to San Jose, 569 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 92% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,476 flights. How this is calculated
PDX → SJC arrives on time 84.6% of the time; the return trip, SJC → PDX, arrives on time 85.7% of the time.
PDX → SJC spends 16.9 minutes on the ground on a 569-mile trip: 12.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PDX and 4.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at SJC.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route holds up about the same all year, a steadier seasonal pattern than 93% of 3,357 comparable routes.
89.4% on time in its best month (March) against 78.9% in its worst (June).
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 3,357 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where PDX to SJC differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PDX to SJC is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 4 PM: 83.9% arrive on time, 13.1 points ahead of the 70.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 13.2 points.
PDX to SJC holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 90.8% on time to their 79.9%, a 10.9 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 11.7 points.
March is kinder to PDX to SJC than to routes of similar length: 89.4% on time against 78.7%, 10.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 11.5 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on PDX to SJC than on its routes of similar length: 82.6% on time here, 77.9% there, 4.7 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 5.2 points.
PDX to SJC against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 83.9% | routes of similar length | 70.8% | +13.1 pts | 473 here, 108,338 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 90.8% | routes of similar length | 79.9% | +10.9 pts | 641 here, 234,930 there |
| Month: March | 89.4% | routes of similar length | 78.7% | +10.7 pts | 444 here, 156,494 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 82.6% | routes of similar length | 77.9% | +4.7 pts | 3,903 here, 452,989 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 569 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
26 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 6,476 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SJC after arriving from PDX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 33% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 8.8% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.1% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.3% | 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 0.03% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,451 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 26 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,476 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PDX → SJC flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 96.0% of the time, against 71.6% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 24.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 98.5% on time from 132 flights
- 6 AM: 97.5% on time from 643 flights
- 7 AM: 93.9% on time from 414 flights
- 8 AM: 94.5% on time from 273 flights
- 9 AM: 92.6% on time from 409 flights
- 10 AM: 88.2% on time from 499 flights
- 11 AM: 89.5% on time from 267 flights
- 12 PM: 82.3% on time from 265 flights
- 1 PM: 80.9% on time from 279 flights
- 2 PM: 87.2% on time from 846 flights
- 3 PM: 80.2% on time from 164 flights
- 4 PM: 83.9% on time from 474 flights
- 5 PM: 72.3% on time from 420 flights
- 6 PM: 70.1% on time from 255 flights
- 7 PM: 76.6% on time from 257 flights
- 8 PM: 69.8% on time from 507 flights
- 9 PM: 74.1% on time from 371 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why PDX → SJC 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 → SJC. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on PDX → SJC, at 63.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 96.0% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 71.6%.
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 | 3,922 | 82.6% | 0.48% | -5 min | 4.8% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 2,049 | 87.5% | 0.15% | -5 min | 3.5% |
| Alaska Airlines | 391 | 89.3% | 0.00% | -7 min | 2.0% |
Southwest Airlines flew 61.6% of the 6,362 flights listed.
Alaska Airlines arrived on time 6.7 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→SJC this route Portland to San Jose | 6,476 | 84.6% | 0.36% | -6 min | 83 |
PDX → SJC is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 84.6% on time, against 72.8% for PDX → SFO.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 12.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.4%
- Feb: 88.1%
- Mar: 89.4%
- Apr: 86.2%
- May: 85.1%
- Jun: 78.9%
- Jul: 79.4%
- Aug: 84.0%
- Sep: 84.5%
- Oct: 86.7%
- Nov: 88.2%
- Dec: 85.9%
June is historically the weakest month and March the strongest, a spread of 10.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 83.9% from 236 flights
- August 2023: 87.3% from 221 flights
- September 2023: 87.0% from 207 flights
- October 2023: 90.0% from 232 flights
- November 2023: 90.9% from 252 flights
- December 2023: 86.6% from 231 flights
- January 2024: 74.9% from 194 flights
- February 2024: 89.0% from 172 flights
- March 2024: 91.6% from 179 flights
- April 2024: 84.6% from 188 flights
- May 2024: 86.2% from 189 flights
- June 2024: 81.5% from 216 flights
- July 2024: 79.2% from 199 flights
- August 2024: 82.6% from 236 flights
- September 2024: 85.7% from 245 flights
- October 2024: 88.3% from 265 flights
- November 2024: 88.0% from 210 flights
- December 2024: 89.7% from 196 flights
- January 2025: 85.8% from 137 flights
- February 2025: 86.8% from 121 flights
- March 2025: 89.4% from 151 flights
- April 2025: 88.5% from 139 flights
- May 2025: 84.9% from 120 flights
- June 2025: 72.0% from 132 flights
- July 2025: 76.5% from 136 flights
- August 2025: 81.1% from 143 flights
- September 2025: 79.2% from 150 flights
- October 2025: 79.0% from 158 flights
- November 2025: too few flights to score (116)
- December 2025: 81.0% from 184 flights
- January 2026: 86.5% from 126 flights
- February 2026: 88.3% from 120 flights
- March 2026: too few flights to score (114)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (116)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (116)
- June 2026: 81.3% from 157 flights
- July 2026: 75.6% from 172 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.1% against 85.3% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,476 PDX → SJC 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