Route profile
PDX→SNA
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Portland to Santa Ana, 859 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 99% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,274 flights. How this is calculated
PDX → SNA arrives on time 90.6% of the time; the return trip, SNA → PDX, arrives on time 90.6% of the time.
PDX → SNA spends 23.1 minutes on the ground on an 859-mile trip: 16.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PDX and 6.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at SNA.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route stays close to typical even on its worst days, a smaller gap than 99% of 4,598 comparable routes.
A typical arrival is 7 min early, and the worst tenth are only 21 minutes worse than that.
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 4,598 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where PDX to SNA differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PDX to SNA is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 PM: 96.7% arrive on time, 30.3 points ahead of the 66.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 29.3 points.
PDX to SNA holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 93.7% on time to their 78.3%, a 15.4 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 14.6 points.
July is kinder to PDX to SNA than to routes of similar length: 92.6% on time against 68.3%, 24.3 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 22.9 points.
Alaska Airlines does better on PDX to SNA than on its routes of similar length: 90.6% on time here, 82.4% there, 8.2 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 12.7 points.
PDX to SNA against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 96.7% | routes of similar length | 66.4% | +30.3 pts | 422 here, 135,175 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 93.7% | routes of similar length | 78.3% | +15.4 pts | 567 here, 341,696 there |
| Month: July | 92.6% | routes of similar length | 68.3% | +24.3 pts | 391 here, 291,318 there |
| Airline: Alaska Airlines | 90.6% | routes of similar length | 82.4% | +8.2 pts | 4,214 here, 113,042 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 859 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 → SNA flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
PDX → SNA cancelled 54 of 4,274 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 79. The reason filed most often was the airline, 72.2% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 110 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.
39 cancellations, 72.2% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
15 cancellations, 27.8% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
0 cancellations, 0.0% 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 → SNA; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
14 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 4,274 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SNA after arriving from PDX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 28% | High risk |
| 45 min | 8.8% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 4.2% | Low risk |
| 90 min | 1.5% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 1.1% | 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 1.26% of the time and diverts 0.14% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,214 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 14 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,274 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PDX → SNA flights departing 6–9 PM arrived on time 96.2% of the time, against 88.5% for 9 AM–12 PM departures, a gap of 7.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 90.0% on time from 1,031 flights
- 8 AM to 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 88.5% on time from 634 flights
- 11 AM: 87.9% on time from 292 flights
- 12 PM to 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 90.3% on time from 456 flights
- 3 PM: 90.9% on time from 256 flights
- 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 88.6% on time from 426 flights
- 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 95.5% on time from 343 flights
- 8 PM: 96.7% on time from 434 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why PDX → SNA runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
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 → SNA. 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 | 4,274 | 90.6% | 1.26% | -7 min | 1.5% |
Other ways to fly Portland to Los Angeles
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PDX→LAX Portland to Los Angeles | 13,548 | 87.8% | 0.85% | -10 min | 84 |
| PDX→SNA this route Portland to Santa Ana | 4,274 | 90.6% | 1.26% | -7 min | 90 |
PDX → SNA is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 90.6% on time, against 87.8% for PDX → LAX.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 4.8 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 87.9%
- Feb: 89.2%
- Mar: 89.7%
- Apr: 93.9%
- May: 92.8%
- Jun: 94.1%
- Jul: 92.6%
- Aug: 91.9%
- Sep: 93.7%
- Oct: 88.5%
- Nov: 87.8%
- Dec: 85.4%
December is historically the weakest month and June the strongest, a spread of 8.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (62)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (62)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (106)
- October 2023: 93.5% from 124 flights
- November 2023: too few flights to score (119)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (92)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (106)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (104)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (108)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (100)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (90)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (92)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (105)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (119)
- October 2024: 88.3% from 139 flights
- November 2024: 83.3% from 139 flights
- December 2024: 82.3% from 131 flights
- January 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (100)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (113)
- April 2025: 93.3% from 120 flights
- May 2025: 89.4% from 124 flights
- June 2025: too few flights to score (115)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- August 2025: 89.2% from 133 flights
- September 2025: 95.2% from 147 flights
- October 2025: 84.3% from 143 flights
- November 2025: 89.6% from 144 flights
- December 2025: 82.8% from 149 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (118)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (107)
- March 2026: 90.3% from 124 flights
- April 2026: 95.7% from 120 flights
- May 2026: 98.4% from 124 flights
- June 2026: too few flights to score (118)
- July 2026: 91.0% from 123 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 90.8% against 89.7% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,274 PDX → SNA 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