Flytravel From United States of America, joined Dec 2009, 524 posts, RR: 0 Posted (3 years 5 months 21 hours ago) and read 2099 times:
I was looking at FL's route map, and one of the biggest missing markets not serviced it seems is Portland OR PDX. Oregon is also supposed to be a nice state for tourism. AirTran is also now taking on some airports as the dominant airline, so the idea that it'd duplicate DL isn't always the case. Any idea why that market was passed?
Atlwest1 From United States of America, joined Jan 2009, 1046 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (3 years 5 months 20 hours ago) and read 2054 times:
I think they probably went after the easy targets first to get an understanding of the west coast and how it fits into there ops I.E SFO SEA LAX. Honestly I see PDX coming in to the system sooner then we think. There is enough slack in aircraft utilization for it. Might be a good route to pull into BWI or MKE versus Atlanta. Also SAC and OAK or even SJC would be good candidates for new west coast cities and or ventures.
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MKENut From United States of America, joined Jul 2007, 687 posts, RR: 1 Reply 2, posted (3 years 5 months 20 hours ago) and read 2023 times:
I'm hoping Midwest will start MKE - PDX since Frontier already has a station there. The startup cost would be minimal and I believe there is enough daily pax from MKE to fill an E190. I can't find the latest DOT report, but I believe I saw about 90 people per day fly to PDX from MKE via connections on other airlines, like Delta. It is only a matter of time for FL to open a PDX station.
BlatantEcho From United States of America, joined Sep 2000, 1869 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (3 years 5 months 19 hours ago) and read 1973 times:
The Portland economy has been just killed over the last few years. I hope in 2011 or so if things are recovering then that we'll see some new routes like this.
Not holding my breath for a new airline to announce new service with 20% unemployment and a ~10% drop in pax numbers.
Hopefully we come back stronger than ever and we'll be welcoming FL then!
JBAirwaysFan From United States of America, joined exactly 4 years ago today! , 784 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (3 years 5 months 10 hours ago) and read 1739 times:
FL just went year round with SEA service this year I believe. SEA used to be a recurring seasonal station for quite a few years. When FL started MKE-SEA, the route became year round shortly after, but only to MKE. I would imagine the PDX market, if anything, will run seasonal for quite some time like SEA did.
Then there's the whole shabang with SAN. One year it's seasonal and the next year it's not.
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Ridgid727 From United States of America, joined Jul 2008, 915 posts, RR: 1 Reply 6, posted (3 years 5 months 10 hours ago) and read 1707 times:
Quoting Flytravel (Thread starter): was looking at FL's route map, and one of the biggest missing markets not serviced it seems is Portland OR PDX. Oregon
they are missing many cities with a much better business traveler climate than PDX----- namely SLC, SMF, SJC, OAK, SNA,YVR, AUS, OKC, TUL
There are a ton of better yielding leisure markets to choose from ahead of PDX. And as others have said, the business markets has yet to recover in Oregon. PDX has never gotten a ton of service east of the Mississippi, so I doubt you'll see FL there any time soon.
Alexinwa From United States of America, joined Sep 2000, 1107 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (3 years 5 months 7 hours ago) and read 1618 times:
Quoting MKENut (Reply 2): I can't find the latest DOT report, but I believe I saw about 90 people per day fly to PDX from MKE via connections on other airlines, like Delta. It is only a matter of time for FL to open a PDX station.
Where can I find that DOT report with that information? Would be a interesting report to look at?
JpetekYXMD80 From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 4244 posts, RR: 29 Reply 9, posted (3 years 5 months 6 hours ago) and read 1549 times:
Quoting JBAirwaysFan (Reply 5): FL just went year round with SEA service this year I believe. SEA used to be a recurring seasonal station for quite a few years. When FL started MKE-SEA, the route became year round shortly after, but only to MKE. I would imagine the PDX market, if anything, will run seasonal for quite some time like SEA did.
Beat me to the punch... totally agree, they need to get better establish SEA and SAN as year round routes first. Maybe PDX for seasonal, but that is a big if.
Also, the lone SEA flight in winter has some very bad times. Late evening arrival in SEA.
Ramprat74 From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 1457 posts, RR: 2 Reply 10, posted (3 years 5 months 5 hours ago) and read 1494 times:
Don't expect any new service to PDX for a while. The operating cost to use PDX is one the highest in the country. The Port charges $149.00 a square foot for ramp level office space. We (United) are giving the Port back tons of office space early next year. We will be moving our maintenance stores and other functions down to our cargo, and maintenance buildings for 1/16th of the cost.
The State of Oregon isn't a company friendly State to do business in. The Port of Portland is even worst. The Port has to pay for their new parking garage and office building , that wasn't needed. So they jacked up terminal rent and other BS things.
MtnWest1979 From United States of America, joined Nov 2005, 2122 posts, RR: 1 Reply 11, posted (3 years 5 months 3 hours ago) and read 1407 times:
Quoting Ramprat74 (Reply 10): The State of Oregon isn't a company friendly State to do business in. The Port of Portland is even worst. The Port has to pay for their new parking garage and office building , that wasn't needed. So they jacked up terminal rent and other BS things.
Are they anywhere near done with that yet? Seems to be taking a looong time, did they slow it down when econ went to crap? And I agree, very unnecessary.
SANFan From United States of America, joined Aug 2006, 4721 posts, RR: 15 Reply 12, posted (3 years 4 months 4 weeks 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 1236 times:
Quoting JBAirwaysFan (Reply 5): Then there's the whole shabang with SAN. One year it's seasonal and the next year it's not.
Quoting JpetekYXMD80 (Reply 9): Beat me to the punch... totally agree, they need to get better establish SEA and SAN as year round routes first. Maybe PDX for seasonal, but that is a big if.
I'll second these comments! (I was going to post on this thread yesterday but I didn't want to be accused of trying to hijack the thread into a SAN-discussion. But now that someone else has brought it up...)
Many of us in San Diego remain surprised, baffled, and bothered by the fact that FL doesn't seem capable of successfully running even one flight to ATL (or anywhere else for that matter) on a year-'round basis! Until such time as they figure out how they can somehow manage permanent -- non-seasonal -- service at SAN, I would not hold out much hope for a smaller and much more truly seasonal destination such as Portland. I may be wrong but I would expect that a large, domestic U.S. carrier like FL would not encourage an increase in the number of their seasonal markets.
I also agree with those who've posted that right now does not seem like a good time, given Portland's (and Oregon's) economic situation, for new airline service. Just my opinion.
Flytravel From United States of America, joined Dec 2009, 524 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (3 years 4 months 4 weeks 10 hours ago) and read 959 times:
That's interesting. I'd think that by taking actions towards increasing tourism, it should help towards improving the economy! Portland is also not that small of a market as some are suggesting, so it has a base to pull from locally. Portland is known for its green aspects. I'd think it has untapped tourism potential, probably after the Bay Area or Colorado. Probably for the traveler who has already been through California, Utah and Colorado and looking for something new, atleast right now. I know AirTran is bigger on the East Coast, so I'm thinking of AirTran serving the East Coast person who'd like to sight-see, hike, etc. on the west coast, or the person from the West coast that needs to get to the east coast. From that aspect, I could see that FL also misses SLC for Utah.
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I'll second these comments! (I was going to post on this thread yesterday but I didn't want to be accused of trying to hijack the thread into a SAN-discussion. But now that someone else has brought it up...) 
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