Portland International Airport (PDX) News

[downtownpdx]

Omg that’s a nightmare!

[mhays]

I'll give Alaska credit for a positive in the end. I finally got out of Miami on American to Chicago. The following morning at O'Hare (after the second free hotel night), I got to my Seattle Alaska gate multiple hours early, as they were nearly done boarding an earlier version of the same flight. I asked the agent if I could switch and got the last seat.

[PlantDad]

Originally Posted by mhays

Don't remind me of Alaska service in Florida. In May their problems in Miami meant an additional TWO nights before I got back to Seattle.

That sounds awful. I've never had communication be that bad. Hopefully you were compensated more than just a hotel room for the delays.

[maccoinnich]

There isn't really a lot in this Portland Business Journal story that would be news to anyone reading this thread, but I did find it funny Mayor Wilson getting a bit over-excited about Alaska's growth at PDX (and Alaska not saying "never" to long haul flights...)

In his remarks, Mayor Keith Wilson all but promised nonstop flights to Asia and Europe from a Portland Alaska operation that will be "bigger than SeaTac."

After the event, COO Berry dialed down expectations a bit.

"Mayor Wilson jumped the gun a little" on international routes, he said.

While local leaders do not hide their hopes for a PDX direct connection to a destination outside North America, airline officials are circumspect. Berry points out that Alaska offers 12 long-haul flights from the Pacific Northwest, and its international destinations include Tokyo, Seoul, Rome and London.

But Berry left the door open a bit on future routes, not ruling out future global destination and saying "as Portland grows, we see opportunity to do more."

[maccoinnich]

June 2026 statistics for PDX. Overall passenger numbers up 5.2% over June 2025, with domestic up 5.1% and international up 8.8% (with KLM and Volaris up an impressive 49.3% and 47.6% respectively).

Alaska mainline up 24.6% and Hawaiian up 11.7%, and while those numbers are partially offset by a 17.8% decrease at Horizon, it's notable that AAG is still up significantly over last year, when they had already started the new banked schedule.

Also of note: June 2026 exceed June 2019 passenger numbers. I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think this may be the first post-pandemic month to exceed 2019 numbers.

[dizflip]

Some updates on the less publicized ground floor

[downtownpdx]

Thanks for sharing! Nice to see an actual ceiling taking shape in bag claim haha. Looks much brighter now.

[maccoinnich]

Executive Director Curtis Robinhold Performance Goals and Objectives for Fiscal Year 2026-2027 was on the agenda at this morning's Port of Portland Commission meeting. Number two will be of interest to those here:

Secure at least one new direct air service route to Asia or Mexico by May 2027 through strategic negotiations and partnership development.

At the meeting, he talked about hoping to secure one or both of Seoul and Mexico City next year, though acknowledged that the war with Iran and consequent spike in oil prices has made it a lot harder to get airlines to commit to new service.