Salt Lake City to Portland

What the Data Says About SLC to PDX

The Salt Lake City to Portland corridor (SLC → PDX) covers roughly 630 miles and is served by 14 carriers, based on Bureau of Transportation Statistics reporting. Across 14,011 flights in the dataset, this route posts a 88.2% on-time rate with an average delay of 63.6 minutes when flights run late. Over the most recent 24 months of BTS data, 4,893 flights were recorded on this pairing — 29 cancelled (0.6%) and 3 diverted (0.1%). Those baseline metrics tell you what to expect before you book.

Having 14 carriers on the route matters: more carriers generally means more daily schedule options, competitive pricing, and redundancy when flights are cancelled. With 14,011 total flights analyzed, the 88.2% on-time figure is statistically meaningful rather than a small-sample fluke. The 63.6-minute average delay applies only to flights that actually ran late, so it is not the average wait across all departures — the majority of flights on this route depart on time under the BTS definition of a delay (15+ minutes past schedule).

Looking at recent months, Oct 2024 posted the best performance on this corridor at 94% on-time, while Jan 2024 came in at 74% on-time — a 21-point gap between best and worst recent month. For travelers evaluating the SLC to PDX route, the combination of a 88.2% on-time rate, 63.6-minute average delay, 0.6% recent cancellation rate, and 14 available carriers is the concrete summary of what BTS data shows about reliability on this pairing.