Portland International Airport (PDX) News

[maccoinnich]

Originally Posted by downtownpdx

PDX will see Alaska Airlines' largest annual passenger increase - 35% - of any airport across its network this coming holiday weekend :

https://www.koin.com/news/portland/thanksgiving-weekend-pdx-major-increase-alaska-airlines/

Thanksgiving weekend at PDX to see major increase in Alaska Airlines passengers

Originally Posted by PhillyPDX

Kind of a weird stat for them to announce, because they don't say why. I'm not sure I've ever see a Thanksgiving travel stat that is more than just the fluff "busiest travel day of the weekend" type of stuff, which is across the board nationally. What is the reason PDX is "surging" this weekend more than other airports?

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

November statistics are out for PDX.

I decided to look back at this, and for the whole month of November (not just Thanksgiving weekend) Alaska mainline was up 19.7% year-on-year and Horizon 36.9%. Overall the airport was only up 5.3%, largely to due to declines and Southwest and Spirit (Delta was down a bit too, but not that much once you account for KLM taking over the Amsterdam flight).

[maccoinnich]

Not sure if this will be of any interest to anyone other than me, but I put in a public records request for the drawings for the new Escape Lounge.

The lounge is going into a former Delta Crown Lounge, which has been shut for at least the last decade and half, if not longer. (The current Sky Club was originally built for Delta in the 1990s, shut down after the closure of their Asian scissor hub, reopened as a Northwest World Club in 2004, and then rebranded as a Sky Club after the Delta/Northwest merger.) The new Escape Lounge will be about 10,000 sq ft in total, with about 2,000 sq ft at the enplaning (concourse) level 8,000 sq at the mezzanine level.

The entrance to the lounge will be just before gate D10. Most of the 2,000 sq ft at the enplaning level will be occupied by the kitchen and back-of-house areas. What people walking along the concourse will see through a storefront glazing system is a credentialing/reception area and the elevator lobby (rendering here). A wood slat wall will conceal the entrance to the kitchen from the concourse.

At the mezzanine level, almost all the area will be in one large open plan volume, spanning the full width of the concourse. This will be divided into into three distinct zones, separated from each other by wood "pavilions" (rendering here).

At the south there will be a dining area with buffet counters and tables and chairs. This area looks over central alleyway, towards the C gates.

At the center is a bar area, with a mixture of bar seating, loose seating and banquettes/tables. This area will have a new skylight overhead and interior views down to the concourse below, near gates D8/D9.

At the north there is more of an open seating area, with views out towards the north runway and the Columbia river.

Restrooms will be at the west side of the lounge. In what I think is a first for both the Escape Lounge chain and for PDX, there will showers in the lounge, in two single user ADA restrooms.

Escape Lounges are not generally the best lounges there are, but looks seems to be a step up for them, and a huge improvement for PDX. Fingers crossed that it will accept Priority Pass...

[MarkDaMan]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

Not sure if this will be of any interest to anyone other than me, but I put in a public records request for the drawings for the new Escape Lounge.

The lounge is going into a former Delta Crown Lounge, which has been shut for at least the last decade and half, if not longer. (The current Sky Club was originally built for Delta in the 1990s, shut down after the closure of their Asian scissor hub, reopened as a Northwest World Club in 2004, and then rebranded as a Sky Club after the Delta/Northwest merger.) The new Escape Lounge will be about 10,000 sq ft in total, with about 2,000 sq ft at the enplaning (concourse) level 8,000 sq at the mezzanine level.

The entrance to the lounge will be just before gate D10. Most of the 2,000 sq ft at the enplaning level will be occupied by the kitchen and back-of-house areas. What people walking along the concourse will see through a storefront glazing system is a credentialing/reception area and the elevator lobby (rendering here). A wood slat wall will conceal the entrance to the kitchen from the concourse.

At the mezzanine level, almost all the area will be in one large open plan volume, spanning the full width of the concourse. This will be divided into into three distinct zones, separated from each other by wood "pavilions" (rendering here).

At the south there will be a dining area with buffet counters and tables and chairs. This area looks over central alleyway, towards the C gates.

At the center is a bar area, with a mixture of bar seating, loose seating and banquettes/tables. This area will have a new skylight overhead and interior views down to the concourse below, near gates D8/D9.

At the north there is more of an open seating area, with views out towards the north runway and the Columbia river.

Restrooms will be at the west side of the lounge. In what I think is a first for both the Escape Lounge chain and for PDX, there will showers in the lounge, in two single user ADA restrooms.

Escape Lounges are not generally the best lounges there are, but looks seems to be a step up for them, and a huge improvement for PDX. Fingers crossed that it will accept Priority Pass...

Thanks, I find it super interesting too!

[babs]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

Not sure if this will be of any interest to anyone other than me, but I put in a public records request for the drawings for the new Escape Lounge.

The lounge is going into a former Delta Crown Lounge, which has been shut for at least the last decade and half, if not longer. (The current Sky Club was originally built for Delta in the 1990s, shut down after the closure of their Asian scissor hub, reopened as a Northwest World Club in 2004, and then rebranded as a Sky Club after the Delta/Northwest merger.) The new Escape Lounge will be about 10,000 sq ft in total, with about 2,000 sq ft at the enplaning (concourse) level 8,000 sq at the mezzanine level.

The entrance to the lounge will be just before gate D10. Most of the 2,000 sq ft at the enplaning level will be occupied by the kitchen and back-of-house areas. What people walking along the concourse will see through a storefront glazing system is a credentialing/reception area and the elevator lobby (rendering here). A wood slat wall will conceal the entrance to the kitchen from the concourse.

At the mezzanine level, almost all the area will be in one large open plan volume, spanning the full width of the concourse. This will be divided into into three distinct zones, separated from each other by wood "pavilions" (rendering here).

At the south there will be a dining area with buffet counters and tables and chairs. This area looks over central alleyway, towards the C gates.

At the center is a bar area, with a mixture of bar seating, loose seating and banquettes/tables. This area will have a new skylight overhead and interior views down to the concourse below, near gates D8/D9.

At the north there is more of an open seating area, with views out towards the north runway and the Columbia river.

Restrooms will be at the west side of the lounge. In what I think is a first for both the Escape Lounge chain and for PDX, there will showers in the lounge, in two single user ADA restrooms.

Escape Lounges are not generally the best lounges there are, but looks seems to be a step up for them, and a huge improvement for PDX. Fingers crossed that it will accept Priority Pass...

Having flown through pdx a lot lately, I think those mezzanines built over the security areas could someday be transformed into lounges. The exploding growth in lounges nationally would create demand. And I could see them repurpose that space eventually with a lobby on the secured side and windows added.

[maccoinnich]

Originally Posted by babs

Having flown through pdx a lot lately, I think those mezzanines built over the security areas could someday be transformed into lounges. The exploding growth in lounges nationally would create demand. And I could see them repurpose that space eventually with a lobby on the secured side and windows added.

There are two mezzanines planned as part of the work now being built where the security nodes were. The south mezzanine between the B and C will be the new Alaska lounge; the north mezzanine between the D and E gates is planned as a common use lounge, however I haven’t seen an RFP go out for it yet (maybe the Port wants to wait a bit and see how the Escape lounge does?)

[babs]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

There are two mezzanines planned as part of the work now being built where the security nodes were. The south mezzanine between the B and C will be the new Alaska lounge; the north mezzanine between the D and E gates is planned as a common use lounge, however I haven’t seen an RFP go out for it yet (maybe the Port wants to wait a bit and see how the Escape lounge does?)

I am highly aware of the current plans. However, the growth in lounges will create demand for additional lounges in the future and unless they plan to remove retail outlets, which would be financially dumb, they will need to find space for more lounges. I wouldn't be surprised if Alaska wants a second lounge down the road. Sea-Tac has three and I believe they are looking at adding 2 more. Also, I wonder if a major remodel of concourse D could result in the relocation of the Delta lounge to create a better food court. The current mini food court under the Delta lounge is claustrophobic.

[maccoinnich]

Originally Posted by babs

Also, I wonder if a major remodel of concourse D could result in the relocation of the Delta lounge to create a better food court. The current mini food court under the Delta lounge is claustrophobic.

Over the course of the next year, the PDX 2045 project should start to give us an idea of what the plans Concourse D are. Looking through the Planning Advisory Committee minutes, the international arrivals area is something that everybody wants to see addressed. And while I wouldn't expect to see the master plan get into granular detail, the whole of Concourse D could really use upgrades. It was only built a few years before Concourse C, but isn't nearly as pleasant.

I do wonder whether Delta will ever want to do something with their current Sky Club, which is very dated at this point. Pre-pandemic, it was rumored that they were going to take over the space that the Escape Lounge is now going into. At the time they were operating year round flights to Amsterdam and Tokyo, with seasonal service to London. Those have all now gone, but their joint venture partner KLM has taken over Amsterdam, and based on the Port's targets for service it's certainly possible that we'll see Delta partners Korean launch flights to Seoul, Aeroméxico relaunch flights to Mexico City, and Air France launch summer seasonal flights to Paris.

At the very least they could remodel and expand their current Skyclub (I believe part of the space on the mezzanine is unused). Or, if there's no lease signed for the common use lounge between concourse D and E, they could take space. That would then allow for a more substantial remodel of Concourse D.

[subterranean]

I never realized there was so much interest in airlines and airports on this site. Appreciate the unearthed info and all the perspectives.

[maccoinnich]

Or, you can find renderings of the Escape lounge here.

[downtownpdx]

Alaska adding 1x daily to Houston and 2x daily to Eugene starting in May

Alaska Airlines announces new routes serving Oregon


Updated Jan 14, 2025 7:55am PST

https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2025/01/14/alaska-portland-houston.html (paywall)

Alaska Airlines (NYSE: ALK) is adding new routes from Oregon airports, including between PDX and the carrier's largest unserved destination.

The Seattle-based airline will begin nonstop flights between Portland and Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport on May 15. The route will be the third route between PDX and a Texas destination by Alaska, which also serves Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth.

Alaska also announced it will restore twice-daily flights between Eugene and Portland and increase the number of daily flights between Portland and Medford and Portland and Redmond, which serves Bend.

Outside of Portland, Alaska will begin daily flights in May between Medford and San Diego.

[maccoinnich]

PDX 2045 Planning Advisory Committee meeting number 5 is tonight. Open to the public either in person or via zoom. Direct link to the agenda.

[maccoinnich]

I listened to the first hour or so of the PDX 2045 PAC meeting last night, until the start of a group exercise that I was less interested in. I'll post a link to the slides when I see them up on the website, but my big takeaways were:

• The Port is looking at shortening or closing the crosswind runway. Doing so would allow them to construct a more efficient taxiway layout, extend Concourse D (should that be recommended as part of the master plan), and save on maintenance costs.
• The planned increases by Alaska should take PDX passenger numbers back to 2019 levels sooner than the Port had previously been predicting, although I didn't quite catch if they meant 2025 will reach 2019 numbers (I suspect not though).
• PDX currently has 59 gates, of which 6 are international capable. These are a mix of common use gates and gates leased to individual carriers. If all gates were common use and optimized perfectly, by 2045 the airport would need 64 gates, of which 9 would need to be international capable. Leased gates are less efficient, so if all gates were leased to individual carriers the airport would need 75 total gates (again, with 9 international capable gates). Most likely, they'll be planning for somewhere in between.
• However, the amount of holdroom space at the gates is currently sub-optimum based on number of passengers on each flight.
• International capable gates D10-D15 are the least used gates at the airport. While they are used for domestic flights, the design of the sterile corridor requires that when one of the international capable gates is being used for an international arrival, it's not necessarily possible to board a flight at the other gates.
• With the new central terminal project soon to be complete, PDX is unlikely to need any more capacity at the TSA checkpoints any time soon.
• The concessions capacity is optimum for current passenger volumes, but would become less so over the planning period assuming growth in passenger volumes.
• The international arrivals experience has apparently come up at every meeting the Port has had so far. It seems they are very well aware of the complaints.
• FIS facility in particular is undersized for today's passenger volumes, and struggles to cope when there are two simultaneous arrivals. Right now international arrivals are reasonably spaced out, but delays happen, and as the airport adds service spacing by time gets harder.

[downtownpdx]

Thanks for sharing! I registered but got back too late from work. Crazy that they’d close that N/S runway. I get it, it’s not used much at all except in stormy weather with south winds. I grew up in Vancouver near the Columbia river, right under that flight path and it was pretty fun for an airport geek to see those planes roar over our house. Hopefully the port can get aggressive about developing a more world class experience for international flights at PDX. I think many years ago there was talk about a satellite terminal, but seems like expanding the current concourses would be much more efficient.

[dizflip]

Yep, the 2000 Master Plan studied both a satellite and a separate terminal, as well as a third parallel runway.

https://cdn.portofportland.com/pdfs/PDX_AF_Mstr_Pln_Updt.pdf

[maccoinnich]

Originally Posted by downtownpdx

I think many years ago there was talk about a satellite terminal, but seems like expanding the current concourses would be much more efficient.

Yeah, with the projected need for new gates in the next twenty years being somewhere between 5 and 16 gates it's hard to imagine the development of either a satellite terminal or the Terminal Expansion envisioned by the 2010 Airport Futures Master Plan.

Probably the easiest thing would be to remodel and extent Concourse D, with the north tunnel extended east under the central and the alleyway to where the international arrivals bus picks up passengers, under D8. That wouldn't be cheap, but it would be less expensive than building a transit system to a new terminal.

[maccoinnich]

December statistics for PDX are out. 2024 ended with 17,518,499 Enplaned & Deplaned Passengers, up 6.3% on 2023. December traffic was up 14.8% year-on-year.

For the full year, International passengers grew faster than domestic passengers, and were up 10.5% at 832,487 Enplaned & Deplaned Passengers (440 more passengers than 2019, though still down 29,679 passengers from the 2018 international peak).

[Tanaka07]

Portland-Yakima flights are in the works. Would people use this flight? I think Alaska would also do well by adding a Pasco flight from Portland.

https://www.applevalleynewsnow.com/news/...aa68790-d6d2-11ef-a7da-ab9c5de85634.html

[maccoinnich]

I would definitely be surprised to see Yakima before Tri-Cities/Pasco.

[PhillyPDX]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

I would definitely be surprised to see Yakima before Tri-Cities/Pasco.

Agreed. Pasco airport is booming. I used to be able to take a prop flight pdx to psc, but that’s been like 15 years+ now. Looks like psc has 10% more passengers than 2019, and almost 90% increase since 2010. Crazy growth.

[mhays]

I used to have relatives in Yakima. Once I flew there from Seattle and they picked me up at the airport. Apparently the cue was "when we heard the plane fly over, we knew it was time to get you." Is this about to get harder?