Portland International Airport (PDX) News

[maccoinnich]

Per Ishrion Aviation on Bluesky:

Alaska Airlines to launch new routes from Portland (PDX):

• PDX to Baltimore (BWI)
• PDX to Philadelphia (PHL)
• PDX to St. Louis (STL)
• PDX to Idaho Falls (IDA)

[downtownpdx]

Awesome!

[maccoinnich]

Governor Kotek and a delegation that includes (among others) the Port of Portland is heading to Japan and South Korea on a trade mission. One of the agenda items is the following:

Governor Kotek will meet with Korean Air and Delta Air Lines to advocate for the return of nonstop passenger service between Portland and Asia, a top priority for both the business community and tourism opportunities.

This makes me think that we shouldn't be expecting the imminent announcement of a route, if the Governor is still lobbying for it.

[downtownpdx]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

Per Ishrion Aviation on Bluesky:

Alaska Airlines to launch new routes from Portland (PDX):

• PDX to Baltimore (BWI)
• PDX to Philadelphia (PHL)
• PDX to St. Louis (STL)
• PDX to Idaho Falls (IDA)

Looks like Alaska is also adding a second Newark flight, increasing Kauai to year round, and bumping up Santa Rosa from 2 to 3 daily.https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2025/10/24/alaska if-airlines-pdx-routes.html

[maccoinnich]

2026 is Alaska’s Year of San Diego and Portland… at the Expense of LA and San Francisco

You might not have seen it since Alaska delayed its press release after last week’s tech problems, but Alaska has put out its big domestic plans for summer of 2026 and beyond. There is a whole lot of growth in both Portland and San Diego, and that has to come from somewhere. Los Angeles and San Francisco (and San Jose) will be down. I spoke with Kirsten Amrine, Vice President of Revenue Management and Network Planning, to get a clearer view of what all this means strategically.

...

The Portland Bulk Up Continues

For years before and into the pandemic, all you saw was growth in Seattle as Alaska looked to win against Delta’s incursion and expand its network. Portland, a long-time hub, just sat there sad and alone waiting for some love. It has been getting it over the last year, and now it gets four more routes starting May 13, all summer seasonal except one:

• Baltimore
• Idaho Falls (year-round)
• Philadelphia
• St Louis

As you can see, it’s been quite the rise for Portland in the last year both in a growing number of destinations and frequencies after a long period of stagnation:

...continues at Crankyflier.

[downtownpdx]

Thanks for sharing this. There was a comment about how San Diego is running into capacity issues with all this growth, with planes waiting 20-30 minutes for a gate to open up. Hopefully it doesn’t reach that point at PDX, but I think there’s more room to grow, and the airport luckily has 2 parallel runways on opposite sides of the terminal while SAN (amazingly) only has one runway. I’d imagine the congestion will be really bad there if this growth continues.

[PhillyPDX]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

...continues at Crankyflier.

I find the airline-airport jockeying fascinating. The positioning for being able to charge more for the same flight, the price of gate slots, the limited pax capacity based on current fleet and maximizing the opportunity cost of the fleet via routes.

AS bumping up PDX and SAN, but depleting SFO (which is thriving, so it's not a demand based decision. They are just giving in to United et al dominance). Just a bunch of big airline in a continual game of turf wars, hoping to charge as much per seat (ideally via limited competition).

[mhays]

Sea-Tac's domestic traffic declined last month as well (as did its Canadian and Mexico/Central regions). This is probably due to Alaska's shift.

[maccoinnich]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

Details for PDX 2045 Open House #2:

I attended the webinar last night, which had been pushed from the originally published date. What was of most interest to me was the discussion about where to put the new International Arrivals Facility. In the options that would place it in Concourse D, it would have to be at the mezzanine level, with vertical circulation from the enplaning (main) level up. After clearing immigration and customs, arriving passengers would enter the landside area of the terminal at a connection near the new art gallery (which I can't quite picture, but apparently there is provision for). I asked if this implies a rebuild or at least a substantial remodel of Concourse D, and they said that's something they're currently trying to work out. That would explain to me why there's no announced plan for the new lounge between Concourses D and E; it may be the case that the ageing Delta Skyclub would be demolished, and they need to find a replacement home for it.

[colossalorder]

Thanks for attending and providing update. Is there even a rough sense of timeline for international arrival improvements?

I recently arrived international at PDX and I couldn't help thinking what a strange experience that must be for a foreigner who has never been to Portland or the US before. That whole thing from basement to bus to dark corridor and then ... voila you are on the street. Welcome to America. It must be so odd for them.

[maccoinnich]

Originally Posted by colossalorder

Thanks for attending and providing update. Is there even a rough sense of timeline for international arrival improvements?

I recently arrived international at PDX and I couldn't help thinking what a strange experience that must be for a foreigner who has never been to Portland or the US before. That whole thing from basement to bus to dark corridor and then ... voila you are on the street. Welcome to America. It must be so odd for them.

That last part about arriving on the street will thankfully be a thing of the past sometime next year. Once they complete the construction of the new escalators down to baggage claim the international arrivals corridor will return.

As to the timeline for a new international facility, there isn't one. It's clearly something they're planning for, but everything in PDX 2045 is more in the category of "if we decide to pull the trigger on this project that we expect to do in the next 20 years, this is how we would do it".

[maccoinnich]

Also, per this afternoon's PDX CAC meeting: the south node at the airport (between B and C gates) should open January 19th and the north node (between D and E) gates should open March 5th. About a week after that, the new exit lanes will open and the temporary exit at the bleachers will close. Some but likely not all of the new concessions will open with the south and north nodes. After the new Alaska Lounge opens, they'll start construction on new restrooms at the location of the old Alaska Lounge. Separate to the T-Core project, the Port will be replacing the revolving doors at the front of the terminal in summer 2026.

[maccoinnich]

PDX 2045 PAC #10 meeting is tonight:

PAC Meeting 10: November 12, 2025

Meeting Location:
Port of Portland Headquarters, Chinook Room,
7200 NE Airport Way, Portland, OR 97209 and online at Zoom

• 5:00-5:30 PM – PAC Member Dinner/mingling
• 5:30-8:00 PM – Meeting presentations and discussion (open to the public)

[downtownpdx]

PDX passenger volumes are near pre-pandemic levels as Thanksgiving rush approaches

https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2025...els-as-thanksgiving-rush-approaches.html

Screen Shot 2025-11-23 at 6.03.19 PM by Ryan Miller, on Flickr

Portland International Airport may finally have recovered from its case of long COVID.

Nearly 1.7 million travelers passed through PDX last month, according to preliminary figures. That’s just a few thousand shy of the number that flew through Portland in October 2019 — the smallest gap of any month since the pandemic.


Air travel has been much slower to recover at PDX than nationally. The Port of Portland, which runs the airport, says that’s because Portland doesn’t have many connecting flights to boost passenger counts and because business travel has fallen off. Some businesses are spending less on travel, favoring less expensive virtual meetings, and Portland is enduring an economic malaise that has lasted far longer than in other cities.

From January through October, PDX passenger volumes remain down about 7% from 2019. But airlines seem to believe the recovery will be sustained and haven’t been waiting around for Portland’s comeback. The port says carriers have increased seats in and out of Portland about 3.8% from 2024. Airlines have added several new domestic destinations and more flights to Europe than Portland had before the pandemic.

(continues)

[maccoinnich]

This mornings Port of Portland Commission meeting had a good update on the status of the work still to be done in the PDX central terminal. Discussion starts about 20 minutes in.

• Video Link

[PhillyPDX]

I’ve been seeing lots of Reddit posts regarding TSA lines in the morning. I thought it was bogus (I flew Thanksgiving week and waited literally 30 secs) until I remembered AS is now banking flights. Is that something TSA needs to accommodate better?

[downtownpdx]

Yeah I feel for the restaurants and tsa with the banked schedule, I’m sure it’s feast or famine. There are like 20 Alaska departures alone scheduled every day at 7 am. So if your flight doesn’t fall into one of those banks you probably have a nice quiet airport.

[PhillyPDX]

Originally Posted by downtownpdx

Yeah I feel for the restaurants and tsa with the banked schedule, I’m sure it’s feast or famine. There are like 20 Alaska departures alone scheduled every day at 7 am. So if your flight doesn’t fall into one of those banks you probably have a nice quiet airport.

What exactly is the benefit to banked schedules? I recall AAL started to do that maybe a decade ago at PHL. I mean they still need to pay the same for gates, and I doubt it affects the requirements for support staff (not like they get sent home for the short lulls between busy times, right?). Seems like it’s only a downside risk to overworked staff in the busy times.

[downtownpdx]

From what I understand it’s to make connections easier. If you have 25 arrivals around 9:30, then those 25 planes depart an hour or so later, you have lots of people who are making quick connections rather than spreading out the flight times randomly. So someone flies in from Medford, then has an hour to catch their connection to Philadelphia, Bozeman, SLC or whatever destination isn’t served nonstop thru Medford. And I’m guessing more passengers would opt for these flights when they see a short layover & a shorter trip overall, knowing they don’t have to spend 5 hrs at the airport. So Alaska benefits from providing this efficient system.

[uncommon.name]

Originally Posted by PhillyPDX

I’ve been seeing lots of Reddit posts regarding TSA lines in the morning. I thought it was bogus (I flew Thanksgiving week and waited literally 30 secs) until I remembered AS is now banking flights. Is that something TSA needs to accommodate better?

I had a flight in August early in the morning so I arrived around 5am and had to wait over 30 mimutes to get through TSA. They seemed understaffed for the morning rush for sure back then. No idea if it's gotten better and I was surprised at the wait considering how much they touted that the new equipment and layout for TSA was supposed to be much more efficient and move the lines faster. That was the longest I've ever waited at PDX for TSA.