QuickTake:

During the 2024 holiday season, Eugene Airport did better than the national average in the percentage on-time flights. But rates vary by airline.

Eugene-area travelers often face a decision: Fly in and out of Eugene, or drive to Portland? 

One factor that might influence the choice: On-time performance. 

Lookout Eugene-Springfield looked at on-time performance at Eugene Airport compared to other airports nearby and others of similar size during last year’s holiday season, a busy time for airlines and travelers.

In the head-to-head competition between PDX and EUG, PDX comes out slightly ahead. 

From November 2024 to January 2025, the national average on-time performance — meaning that flights arrived at the gate within 15 minutes or earlier of their scheduled arrival time — was 80.41%.

Eugene does slightly better, with 80.86% of the 2,105 flights during this period arriving on time. In Portland, 82.7% of flights arrived on time during the same period.

Andrew Martz, assistant airport director at Eugene Airport, is pleased with the airport’s on-time performance.

“We’re happy to be better than the national average,” Martz said. “But I would say that airports don’t stand alone. All airports are part of a bigger system, and Eugene’s no exception to that. What happens at other airports has a huge impact on what happens in Eugene.”

Delays can stem from airline-specific issues, weather or backups at other airports.

The most common cause for delays is a previous flight arriving late. These delays often start with weather in the early part of the day, causing a compounding “ripple effect,” pushing back later flights.

Airline-responsible delays were the second most common cause. These mean any delay caused by an issue within the carrier’s control, varying from luggage loading to aircraft maintenance. In total, the category accounted for 142 delayed flights. 

Here’s how on-time performance compared among airlines with service to Eugene Airport. 

The airline with the best performance in Eugene during the 2024 holiday season was Southwest Airlines, with an on-time rate of 84.39%. The worst was Envoy Air, a subsidiary of American that flies two daily flights to Phoenix, with an on-time rate of 65.79%.

​Envoy Air media spokesperson Adam Simmons said for the 2025 holiday season, the Envoy ground handling team at Eugene Airport is exceeding its performance targets in areas such as departure performance and bag off-loading.​

“Our team at Envoy Headquarters reviews all the above metrics and many more to ensure that our stations are delivering on our ground handling commitment to American and the customers we serve,” Simmons said in a written statement.