Portland International Airport (PDX) News

[uncommon.name]

Reminder - Alaska's new PDX to MIA daily route is scheduled to commence on November 17th.

Read more here...

American Airlines also started a direct daily MIA-PDX route yesterday. Unfortunately both airlines flights from PDX are red-eye at this time.

More American Airlines info here...

[maccoinnich]

Portland (PDX) Set to Get a New Escape Lounge in 2024



Travelers with The Platinum Card® from American Express can get into Escape Lounges at small and mid-sized airports across the country. And now Portland (PDX) is poised to get an Escape Lounge in the near future.

The airport's governing board is set to vote Wednesday on final approval of a brand-new Escape Lounge, according to public records from the Port of Portland. If approved, it'll be the first common-use lounge that travelers flying in and out of Portland can access with premium travel credit cards or by simply buying a day pass – no matter which airline they're flying. Currently, Portland is home to only airline-specific lounges from Alaska Airlines, Delta, and United.

The plans for the Escape Lounge – which have already been put forward by airport board staff as the best choice for a common-use lounge – call for a 10,696-square foot space on the mezzanine level of the D Concourse of the Portland airport, near the Delta Sky Club. After building a closer relationship with American Express Centurion Lounges, it'll be technically branded as an “American Express Escape Lounge – The Centurion Studio Partner.”

Pending board approval, the initial proposal says the lounge is expected to open Dec. 1, 2024 after about a year of construction. But don't mark your calendars just yet: New lounges are notorious for delayed openings.

...continues at Thrifty Traveler.

[maccoinnich]

Alaska Airlines adds direct flight between Portland and entertainment destination



Portlanders will have a faster way to reach the Music City next year with a new Alaska Airlines connection between PDX and Nashville.

Alaska (NYSE: ALK) will start daily direct flights between Portland International Airport and Nashville starting March 14, the carrier said in an announcement Thursday.

“We know there’s a strong desire by our guests for an easier way to travel between Portland and Nashville. Our new flight will link a pair of exciting regions that both have wide-ranging, festive entertainment and sports scenes as well as growing business centers," Alaska Vice President Kirsten Amrine said said in the announcement.

...continues at the Porltand Business Journal ($).

[downtownpdx]

According to the article, this new flight means Alaska has more nonstops from pdx to places outside the northwest than before the pandemic.

[subterranean]

Really wish Alaska wouldn’t have ditched their nonstop to Detroit. It’s only Delta that flies that route directly now. And Allegiant used to fly direct to Grand Rapids, but I tried to book something for my parents and it wasn’t available anymore either.

[maccoinnich]

Take this with a grain of salt for now, but there's discussion at airliners.net about an increase in frequent on flights to London on BA next summer, plus a new flight on Delta to Paris.

[downtownpdx]

Yeah I saw that, hope there's something to it! I guess London has been doing really well. Hard to believe we still don't have an Asia nonstop yet, although I think it's more dependent on biz travel which isn't really doing so well. I still think we'll resume one in the next year.

[PhillyPDX]

I was wondering if the rapid growth of Eugene and Redmond airports over last decade has cannibalized some connectivity through PDX (mentioned in that link airliners link above), thus contributing to PDX slow growth (fly direct RDM to LAX or DFW now rather than connect through PDX).

Apparently not upon doing some searching. I'm a bit surprised to see SEA is by far the busiest destination from both airports (#2 destination isn't even close for either). PDX isn't a top 10 destination from either. Rich get richer I guess. As SEA grows it creates a positive feedback loop to offer better connections. Unfortunate, since my gut assumed those would be big feeders into PDX. I wonder if they were back when PDX was a Delta hub?

[downtownpdx]

Originally Posted by PhillyPDX

I was wondering if the rapid growth of Eugene and Redmond airports over last decade has cannibalized some connectivity through PDX (mentioned in that link airliners link above), thus contributing to PDX slow growth (fly direct RDM to LAX or DFW now rather than connect through PDX).

Apparently not upon doing some searching. I'm a bit surprised to see SEA is by far the busiest destination from both airports (#2 destination isn't even close for either). PDX isn't a top 10 destination from either. Rich get richer I guess. As SEA grows it creates a positive feedback loop to offer better connections. Unfortunate, since my gut assumed those would be big feeders into PDX. I wonder if they were back when PDX was a Delta hub?

https://www.oregonlive.com/business/...pproaches.html

Sounds like passenger counts at pdx are rising sharply as of late. But yeah, ever since covid the air travel recovery is focused more on large hub airports like Seattle. Plus Delta has been trying to encroach on Seattle's Alaska hub the last decade, so Alaska is reluctant to send too much traffic Portland's way. The recent nonstop additions of Nashville, and Miami (from both Alaska and One World partner American) will help build back pdx for connections, hopefully. Plus at some point Seattle is just gonna be too inconvenient, it's bursting at the seams.

[PhillyPDX]

Originally Posted by downtownpdx

https://www.oregonlive.com/business/...pproaches.html

Sounds like passenger counts at pdx are rising sharply as of late. But yeah, ever since covid the air travel recovery is focused more on large hub airports like Seattle. Plus Delta has been trying to encroach on Seattle's Alaska hub the last decade, so Alaska is reluctant to send too much traffic Portland's way. The recent nonstop additions of Nashville, and Miami (from both Alaska and One World partner American) will help build back pdx for connections, hopefully. Plus at some point Seattle is just gonna be too inconvenient, it's bursting at the seams.

I saw that article when it was 1st published and it had a graph showing pdx vs the rest of the country (updated through Sept maybe?). Apparently it was removed from the article since then. The graph showed pdx is still like 20% (even with recent surge) below 2019 whereas rest of country now has passed pre-pandemic. Astounding numbers relative to national average, not quite sure what it means or why pdx has lagged so much related to all comparable cities. You’d think a large city with diverse biz would mostly fall in line with rest of county, so why hasn’t it?

[uncommon.name]

Originally Posted by PhillyPDX

I saw that article when it was 1st published and it had a graph showing pdx vs the rest of the country (updated through Sept maybe?). Apparently it was removed from the article since then. The graph showed pdx is still like 20% (even with recent surge) below 2019 whereas rest of country now has passed pre-pandemic. Astounding numbers relative to national average, not quite sure what it means or why pdx has lagged so much related to all comparable cities. You’d think a large city with diverse biz would mostly fall in line with rest of county, so why hasn’t it?

I'm pretty sure I saw the graph that you're referring to. I've seen a few good points that likely contribute to PDX's lag in rebounding.

Portland has really struggled to fix it's image for tourism, so tourism is really down since the Pandemic in the Rose City.

Earlier someone also mentioned the consolidation of Hubs being used so Airlines are focusing more of their flights through those Airports (this also contributes to SEA being the most travelled destination from PDX, RDM, etc. since it's Alaska's main hub - PDX's largest carrier).

I'm sure the rapid growth at RDM and EUG are also having some impact on PDX. Eugene is about to more than double the size of their Terminal which will accomodate the new routes and airlines that are starting to fly out of there. People travel all across the state to fly out/in of PDX so if there is an Airport that serves their needs closer (RDM for Eastern Oregon), there is less need for them to use PDX. The direct flight from RDM to PDX only just resumed this month though, so that should direct more connections to PDX at least. RDM also recently announced a large expansion of their Terminal. It's great news for travellers around Oregon for sure and more convenient, but it will be interesting to see over the coming years how much it impacts PDX.

[PhillyPDX]

Originally Posted by uncommon.name

I'm pretty sure I saw the graph that you're referring to. I've seen a few good points that likely contribute to PDX's lag in rebounding.

Portland has really struggled to fix it's image for tourism, so tourism is really down since the Pandemic in the Rose City.

Earlier someone also mentioned the consolidation of Hubs being used so Airlines are focusing more of their flights through those Airports (this also contributes to SEA being the most travelled destination from PDX, RDM, etc. since it's Alaska's main hub - PDX's largest carrier).

I'm sure the rapid growth at RDM and EUG are also having some impact on PDX. Eugene is about to more than double the size of their Terminal which will accomodate the new routes and airlines that are starting to fly out of there. People travel all across the state to fly out/in of PDX so if there is an Airport that serves their needs closer (RDM for Eastern Oregon), there is less need for them to use PDX. The direct flight from RDM to PDX only just resumed this month though, so that should direct more connections to PDX at least. RDM also recently announced a large expansion of their Terminal. It's great news for travellers around Oregon for sure and more convenient, but it will be interesting to see over the coming years how much it impacts PDX.

Was tourism that much of the pdx traffic? For sure other tourism destinations have fully rebounded (right?). I can tell you after being in Nashville for work the other month that those new flights are surely about getting people TO Nashville and not the other way around. Nash-Vegas is real and booming, for better or worse.

[maccoinnich]

Looking at the year-to-date Port of Portland Statistics for September 2019 v 2023* here are some takeaways:

• Alaska Mainline is down 10% YTD 2019-2023. With recent route announcements it's not hard to see them carrying the same number of passengers in 2024 that they did in 2019.
• Alaska Horizon is down 58%, which I imagine is a consequence of their much smaller fleet and deploy that to Seattle. (According to wikipedia, they currently have 41 planes, vs 65 pre-pandemic.)
• SkyWest is up 27.9%, which I understand is partly because they're doing more flying for Alaska. The combined SkyWest / Horizon numbers are down 34%.
• Of the US big three airlines, American Airlines is down 8%, United 6% and Delta 18.6%. I imagine the latter is partly due to no longer operating the seasonal London flight or the year round Tokyo flight. If Seoul ever launches (and/or if there's anything to the Paris rumor) the Delta numbers would go up.
• British Airways had carried 88,522 passengers YTD, on a route that didn't exist pre-pandemic. It launched in June '22, and in September '23 carried over twice the passengers it did in September '22.
• Of the other European airlines, Icelandair is up 7% and Condor down 38%. The overall traffic carried by European airlines is up 96.9%.
• Of the low cost airlines, Southwest is down 28.5%, Frontier is up 69.5%, JetBlue is down 52%, Sun Country is down 82% and Allegiant is new. Combined, they're collectively down 27%.
• Hawaiian Airlines is up 10%.
• Of the Canadian airlines, WestJet is up 110% and Air Canada (including Jazz and Rouge) is down 30%. The combined total by Canadian carriers is down 13.7%.
• Volaris is up 37%. They only fly a single route to Guadalajara, though now operate a second daily flight some days.

[PhillyPDX]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

Looking at the year-to-date Port of Portland Statistics for September 2019 v 2023* here are some takeaways:

• Alaska Mainline is down 10% YTD 2019-2023. With recent route announcements it's not hard to see them carrying the same number of passengers in 2024 that they did in 2019.
• Alaska Horizon is down 58%, which I imagine is a consequence of their much smaller fleet and deploy that to Seattle. (According to wikipedia, they currently have 41 planes, vs 65 pre-pandemic.)
• SkyWest is up 27.9%, which I understand is partly because they're doing more flying for Alaska. The combined SkyWest / Horizon numbers are down 34%.
• Of the US big three airlines, American Airlines is down 8%, United 6% and Delta 18.6%. I imagine the latter is partly due to no longer operating the seasonal London flight or the year round Tokyo flight. If Seoul ever launches (and/or if there's anything to the Paris rumor) the Delta numbers would go up.
• British Airways had carried 88,522 passengers YTD, on a route that didn't exist pre-pandemic. It launched in June '22, and in September '23 carried over twice the passengers it did in September '22.
• Of the other European airlines, Icelandair is up 7% and Condor down 38%. The overall traffic carried by European airlines is up 96.9%.
• Of the low cost airlines, Southwest is down 28.5%, Frontier is up 69.5%, JetBlue is down 52%, Sun Country is down 82% and Allegiant is new. Combined, they're collectively down 27%.
• Hawaiian Airlines is up 10%.
• Of the Canadian airlines, WestJet is up 110% and Air Canada (including Jazz and Rouge) is down 30%. The combined total by Canadian carriers is down 13.7%.
• Volaris is up 37%. They only fly a single route to Guadalajara, though now operate a second daily flight some days.

Southwest is pretty shocking especially with their new terminal, and they are as big as the big 3. What has caused their large reduction? Fewer destinations? I wonder if SWA carries an outsize percentage of tourism, whereas the other big 3 do more biz travel than SWA (having multiple classes and international footprint, I assume they have more biz connections/travelers).

[ThatDarnSacramentan]

Originally Posted by PhillyPDX

Southwest is pretty shocking especially with their new terminal, and they are as big as the big 3. What has caused their large reduction? Fewer destinations? I wonder if SWA carries an outsize percentage of tourism, whereas the other big 3 do more biz travel than SWA (having multiple classes and international footprint, I assume they have more biz connections/travelers).

I wouldn't be surprised if Southwest has long term or permanently lost some customers after their complete disasterclass last holiday season. I know people who had their holidays ruined and said never again after that.

[maccoinnich]

I'm not sure why Southwest is so far down on 2019, but they're up 26% compared to the same period in 2022 (which is more that Delta, United, American or Alaska are up), so I don't think it's people booking away from them. I don't see many routes that they operated pre-pandemic that haven't returned, so I assume many of their routes are just served less frequently?

[subterranean]

Why US travellers are snubbing budget airlines

By Sam Becker

Major US airlines posted big Q3 2023 profits, but their low-cost counterparts' earnings suffered. Is this the beginning of the end of budget carriers?

Source: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article...dget-airlines#

[Bigtimecharlie]

It’s frustrating that PDX is by and large just a feeder airport for Seattle. May have made sense during the pandemic when air travel was down substantially across the board. However, today SEA is bursting at the seems. Doesn’t seem like airlines would need to route so much PDX traffic through SEA any longer. To me, it’s ridiculous to have to fly to SEA first to go to LA, or Phoenix, etc. Hard to believe there’s not enough demand through PDX to fill jets on those common basic routes - especially with the new, smaller commuter jets.

[PhillyPDX]

Originally Posted by Bigtimecharlie

It’s frustrating that PDX is by and large just a feeder airport for Seattle. May have made sense during the pandemic when air travel was down substantially across the board. However, today SEA is bursting at the seems. Doesn’t seem like airlines would need to route so much PDX traffic through SEA any longer. To me, it’s ridiculous to have to fly to SEA first to go to LA, or Phoenix, etc. Hard to believe there’s not enough demand through PDX to fill jets on those common basic routes - especially with the new, smaller commuter jets.

A few things of note.

1. Interesting that SEA is the biggest PDX destination but only #8 reciprocal (although #1 for SEA is Anchorage? Never would have guessed that).

2. Smaller commuter jets are disappearing. Just are not being made anymore (Embraer is the only one now I think?). It'll be a big issue for small airports (think much smaller than pdx) going forward. It'll also really affect the feeder airlines (skywest, etc). This will affect route structure over the next decades, everywhere.

3. Looking at numbers, carrier traffic at PDX is MUCH more even between several carriers than SEA which is dominated by Alaska and Delta. Those airlines can maybe control prices better at SEA? Or just route through their hubs better? Interesting numbers regardless, I would have thought Alaska is way more dominant at PDX than it really is (30% vs 49% at SEA).

[downtownpdx]

Not too surprising I guess, regarding pdx to sea traffic vs the opposite direction. Sea passengers don't typically need to connect through pdx, and most people just drive if the portland area is their destination. I didn't realize Alaska consumed half of seattle's traffic, and i kinda figured their portland presence was a larger share. Perhaps it's a good thing that we're not dominated too much by one airline? Look what happens to places like St Louis (TWA). I know the 2 markets (sea/st louis) are totally different but at some point St Louis was also thriving.