The flight time from Portland to San Francisco is 1 hour, 50 minutes. See Data as Tables

Average Timeline

Leaves PDX Portland, OR 2 minutes early.
16 minutes taxiing out
1 hour, 25 minutes in the air
6 minutes taxiing in
Arrives SFO San Francisco, CA 1 minute late.

Flight Reliability By Airline ?

United
75%
Alaska
71%
Frontier
47%
Cancelled
Delayed*
Normal

Flight Summary

The flight time from Portland to San Francisco is 1 hour, 50 minutes. The time spent in the air is 1 hour, 25 minutes.

The flight distance from Portland to San Francisco is 550 Miles.

Reverse Journey

San Francisco to Portland
1 hour, 43 minutes

Flight Time By Airline ?

United
1h 48m
Alaska
1h 51m
Frontier
1h 56m
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flight Time by Time of Day ?

12AM06AM12PM06PM 30m1h1h 30m
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flights By Time of Day ?
(Average)

12AM06AM12PM06PM0.00.51.01.52.0

Flights Per Week

77

Distance

550 Miles

Flights By Month ?

JFMAMJJASOND0100200300400

Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun0510

Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)

Alaska
38
United
35
Frontier
4

Frequently Asked Questions

How far is Portland from San Francisco by plane?

The distance from Portland to San Francisco by plane is 550 Miles. This is the air distance on the most direct route taken by the vast majority of flights.

How long is the flight from Portland to San Francisco?

The flight time from Portland to San Francisco is 1 hour, 50 minutes. The time spent in the air is 1 hour, 25 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with United being the fastest taking 1 hour, 48 minutes, and Frontier the slowest taking 1 hour, 56 minutes.

What airlines fly from Portland to San Francisco?

Frontier, United, and Alaska are the airlines with direct flights from Portland to San Francisco.

Does Southwest fly from Portland to San Francisco?

Southwest does not fly from Portland (PDX) to San Francisco (SFO). Keep in mind that Southwest may fly to other nearby airports, as they will often fly into smaller airpors instead of larger ones. This is because the costs are often lower to fly into smaller airports, and they pass the savings on to you.

Tables and Explanations

Data Source

Our information is computed from the latest available data from the US Department of Transportation.

Average Timeline Timeline Chart

The average timeline contains the median time a flight spends in 3 stages. The first of these three stages is taxiing out which includes the time from the flight leaving the gate to taking off. The second stage is in the air, which includes the time spent from the flight leaving the ground to touching back down at the end of it's journey. The last stage is taxiing in, which is from when the flight touches down to the flight arriving at it's gate.

The average timeline also estimates on average of when the flight will leave and arrive relative to it's stated departure time.

Leaves Portland 2 minutes early
Taxi Out Time 16 minutes
In the Air 85 minutes
Taxiing In 6 minutes
Arrives San Francisco 1 minute late

Flight Reliability Reliability Chart

The reliability of an airline measures how often the airline's flights on this route are cancelled or delayed more than 20 minutes. For example, from Portland to San Francisco, Frontier is 47% reliable, which means that Frontier flights are on time 47% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled
United 75% 24% 1%
Alaska 71% 27% 2%
Frontier 47% 50% 3%

Flight Time By Airline Flight Time By Airline Chart

Each airline takes a different amount of time to fly between Portland and San Francisco, this is due to different operational factors on the ground, as well as scheduling of planes. Each airline's flight time is split into three stages which are described above in the "Average Timeline" section. There are also miscellaneous operational issues which are included in the below total but are not accounted for in one of the three stages.

Airline Taxiing Out
(minutes)
In the Air
(minutes)
Taxiing In
(minutes)
Total
(minutes)
United 15 85 5 108
Alaska 17 86 6 111
Frontier 16 85 13 116

Flights By Time of Day Flight Time By Day Chart

This one is pretty self explanatory, it represents the number of flights that leave the gate in a given hour of the day. The tricky thing here is that this is normally not a whole number since it is an average over 52 weeks. Partial numbers may indicate that a flight may be seasonal or may take off at different times due to different operational factors.

Time Count
6pm 0.04
5am 0.15
7am 0.81
1pm 0.9
12pm 0.34
4pm 0.9
5pm 0.34
3pm 0.74
6am 0.72
8pm 0.25
9am 0.39
11am 0.73
7pm 1.83
10am 1.26
8am 0.81
2pm 0.6
9pm 0.09

Flights By Month Flights By Month Chart

The quantity of flights from Portland to San Francisco that take off in a given month of the year. This number changes because some flights are seasonal, and almost all flights have uneven demand througout the year.

Month Count
January 260
February 275
March 327
April 308
May 317
June 298
July 363
August 372
September 374
October 413
November 377
December 360

Flights By Day Of Week Flights By Day of Week Chart

The quantity of flights from Portland to San Francisco that take off on a given day of the week. Some routes only have enough demand to sustain a few trips a week, while others have many flights a day. This number is also an average across the year, and hence may not be a whole number.

Day Count
Monday 11.81
Tuesday 11.02
Wednesday 10.85
Thursday 11.52
Friday 11.56
Saturday 9.83
Sunday 11.19

Flight per Airline (per Week) Flights By Airline Chart

How many times an airline flies this route in a week. Different factors play into how often a carrier chooses to fly a given route including it's need to connect disparate routes, and demand.

Airline Flights per Week
Alaska 1
United 1
Frontier 0

Flight Time By Time of Day Flight Time by Time of Day Chart

The total flight time varies by each hour of the day due to factors such as airport traffic. More flights leaving an airport may cause higher taxi in or taxi out times. See the description of the average timeline above for a deeper discussion of each of these times.

Time Taxi Out
(minutes)
In the Air
(minutes)
Taxi In
(minutes)
Total
(minutes)
6pm 15 86 15 120
5am 13 86 6 104
7am 23 85 5 115
1pm 14 85 5 107
12pm 15 86 6 108
4pm 15 85 5 106
5pm 14 86 7 109
3pm 16 84 5 108
6am 14 85 6 106
8pm 17 85 7 110
9am 17 88 5 111
11am 15 86 6 110
7pm 17 85 5 112
10am 18 87 5 111
8am 20 86 6 117
2pm 16 86 6 109
9pm 16 85 4 110
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.