Portland International Airport (PDX) News

[maccoinnich]

When the current flight to Narita started it was by Northwest Airlines, who had a hub out of Narita with flights to other destinations in Asia. Delta has been slowly dismantling that hub in favor of direct flights to other Asian cities and a partnership with Korean Air.

I wonder if Delta would ever consider a flight from Portland to Seoul that connects to Korean's network in the same way that their flight to Amsterdam connects to KLM's European network?

[Derek]

I bet if PDX ever gets a flight to Seoul, it would be on Korean Air (whom Delta has a joint venture with).

Similarly, when LHR goes year round I wouldn’t be surprised if it was on Virgin Atlantic, for the same reason outlined above.

[downtownpdx]

Some newer renderings/photos of upcoming PDX projects from PDXNExt --

https://www.pdxnext.com

6-gate extension of Concourse E with great Mt Hood view, and new home to Southwest Airlines, completion 2020:

Seeforyourself_ConcourseE_Gallery08 by Ryan Miller, on Flickr
Seeforyourself_ConcourseE_Gallery07 by Ryan Miller, on Flickr


Demolished Concourse A will be replaced by an expanded Concourse B, home to Alaska/Horizon Airlines, completion 2021:

Seeforyourself_ConcourseB_Gallery06 by Ryan Miller, on Flickr
Seeforyourself_ConcourseB_Gallery08 by Ryan Miller, on Flickr


Expanded central terminal, completion 2025 - official design revealed in April 2020 :

PDXNext-Timeline2 by Ryan Miller, on Flickr

[MarkDaMan]

^As mentioned above, lots of new images at pdxnext.com

New rental car building renderings from PDX Next:

[urbanlife]

These improvements to the airport look amazing, this will definitely help keep PDX being the best airport in the country.

[Pavlov's Dog]

With Condors parent Thomas Cook insolvent it's only a matter of time before they also cede operations. Let's hope someone else fills that gap.

Both Lufthansa continuing flights to Frankfurt or BA to London would be fantastic

[mmeade]

The last day to fly out of Concourse A is this Wednesday! Changes are coming quick at PDX!

[downtownpdx]

Concourse C is going to be a crazy busy place with all those regional Alaska flights moving over there. But Southwest's move to the extended concourse E next year ought to balance things out. Looking forward to a nicer, roomier home for Alaska - Horizon.

[baloneyjoe]

It's official. Service will be 5x per week starting June 1, 2020.

BRITISH AIRWAYS PUTS PORTLAND, OREGON, ON ITS ROUTE MAP
https://mediacentre.britishairways.c...11920?ref=Home

This service will also represent the first scheduled commercial 787 service for Portland. Nice to see a new aircraft and new airline at PDX!

[downtownpdx]

Awesome! It'll be interesting to see how Delta's summer seasonal London service is affected by this. Hopefully both can thrive. Great news!

[pdxlexus]

Not clear from the new release if this is year-round or seasonal. Looks like by the departure and arrival times that they are targeting leisure travelers and not business.

[baloneyjoe]

It's year-round.

Here's the Port of Portland's official news release, from today:
https://www.portofportland.com/Newsr...tish%20Airways


From the above article:

On June 1, 2020, British Airways will become the only airline to offer a year-round nonstop flight from Portland to the UK when the airline launches its 5-day-per-week service from the Oregon city to London Heathrow.

[pdxlexus]

Originally Posted by baloneyjoe

It's year-round.

Here's the Port of Portland's official news release, from today:
https://www.portofportland.com/Newsr...tish%20Airways


From the above article:

Thanks. Don't know how I missed that.

[WestCoast]

Originally Posted by pdxlexus

Not clear from the new release if this is year-round or seasonal. Looks like by the departure and arrival times that they are targeting leisure travelers and not business.

Not sure what makes you say that?
I'm a business traveler and love the departure times. I don't want another 2pm departure from West Coast that arrives at 750am into LHR.

This is ideal to sleep and arrive and get to work.
Did that once this year. PDX-SEA-LHR. Landed at LHR, took shower in lounge, and went directly to work in North London. It was easy as pie. Zero jet lag.

--
I think I'll keep using DL service, as I am loyal to them.
But to burn AS miles, or for our staff, this will be a GREAT addition - YEAR ROUND is the key here. We have needed this so badly.


--
Now bring on PDX-ICN and Portland is covered for years and years.

[RED_PDXer]

AWESOME!! I'll likely take this flight once or twice a year.

[pdxlexus]

The reason I'm thinking this is that the PDX-LHR flight doesn’t arrive until 12:10 PM. By the time you clear customs and get into the center of London it's likely to be 3:00 PM. By contrast the PDX-AMS fight usually arrives before 8:00 AM which allows for a productive day's work in Amsterdam.

[maccoinnich]

Aside from the fact that Delta has all the contracts with large Portland employers, their business class is also substantially nicer than British Airways'.

[Pavlov's Dog]

Originally Posted by maccoinnich

Aside from the fact that Delta has all the contracts with large Portland employers, their business class is also substantially nicer than British Airways'.

BA has connections from London to probably 100 destinations while Delta has basically none. They will also get some feed at PDX from their interline with Alaska and also get access to their massive frequent flyer base. This flight will do really well for them. It wouldn't surprise me if Delta shifts this equipment to Paris which is also a major destination but also a Air France's hub

[maccoinnich]

Originally Posted by Pavlov's Dog

BA has connections from London to probably 100 destinations while Delta has basically none. They will also get some feed at PDX from their interline with Alaska and also get access to their massive frequent flyer base. This flight will do really well for them. It wouldn't surprise me if Delta shifts this equipment to Paris which is also a major destination but also a Air France's hub

I'm not arguing that the BA flight will do poorly, just that I agree with pdxlexus's thought that they're probably not counting on it being heavily used for business travelers, given timing of the flight/corporate contracts/quality of the product they're competing against/etc.

And yes, BA does have more connections in London than Delta does, but Delta has access to KLM's European network in Amsterdam (and connecting at Schiphol is famously more pleasant than connecting at Heathrow).

[WestCoast]

The last figures I saw (admittedly a number of years ago) were 1,000 pax a day go Portland to Europe. In winter, there are 230 odd seats going to Europe, and even in the summer, it was maybe 500..


I think the Port has argued that, there is so much leakage to other cities (PDX-SEA-XXX, PDX-YVR-XXX, PDX-SFO-XXX), that, a second daily non-stop flight won't do anything but help more people fly direct to Europe, instead of connecting in other US airports


Ie, there is plenty of traffic/demand for two daily, year round flights. As long as prices aren't significantly higher than other options, the BA flight won't really compete with the DL AMS flight. They will compliment each other to push more traffic PDX-LHR/AMS-XXX instead of it going elsewhere in the US.


I believe that's the thinking here.