Portland International Jetport | PWM

Paul is aware of the outdated photos in the baggage claim area and told me a while ago the they will be addressed when the new carousel is added. Hopefully the images as you enter baggage claim will also receive a makeover. WGME13 is still using a 15 year old downtown google shot from above during their weather segments and I have contacted Charlie Lopresti a few times to update it with no luck yet. These things take time. :(
 
Departing Route Report - Morning Push 10/5
(Time, Airline, Destination, Seats, Available, % full)
5:15am UA IAD 76 2 97%
5:20am SWA BWI 175 3 98%
5:30am AA PHL 128 12 91%
6:00am AA DCA 128 8 94%
6:00am AA CLT 172 11 94%
6:00am B6 JFK 150 39 74%
6:00am DL ATL 191 5 97%
6:00am UA EWR 166 14 92%
6:00am UA ORD 166 19 89%
6:02am DL JFK 76 6 92%
6:30am DL LGA 70 5 93%
6:30am SWA MDW 175 0 100%
7:00am AA ORD 76 0 100%
7:00am MX CVG 137 15 89%
7:58am UA ORD 76 4 95%
8:03am UA EWR 76 1 99%
8:59am AA DFW 190 0 100%

Totals: 6 Airlines, 13 airports, 17 departing RON aircraft, 2,228 seats offered, 144 empty seats, 2,084 seats purchased tomorrow morning. 94% full.

Biggest holes:
UA to Denver
DL to Detroit
AA to LaGuardia
SWA to Nashville
JetBlue to Orlando
Breeze to Charleston

*figures all based off airline info so there is room for error
 
NR2Portland said:
Departing Route Report - Morning Push 10/5
(Time, Airline, Destination, Seats, Available, % full)
5:15am UA IAD 76 2 97%
5:20am SWA BWI 175 3 98%
5:30am AA PHL 128 12 91%
6:00am AA DCA 128 8 94%
6:00am AA CLT 172 11 94%
6:00am B6 JFK 150 39 74%
6:00am DL ATL 191 5 97%
6:00am UA EWR 166 14 92%
6:00am UA ORD 166 19 89%
6:02am DL JFK 76 6 92%
6:30am DL LGA 70 5 93%
6:30am SWA MDW 175 0 100%
7:00am AA ORD 76 0 100%
7:00am MX CVG 137 15 89%
7:58am UA ORD 76 4 95%
8:03am UA EWR 76 1 99%
8:59am AA DFW 190 0 100%

Totals: 6 Airlines, 13 airports, 17 departing RON aircraft, 2,228 seats offered, 144 empty seats, 2,084 seats purchased tomorrow morning. 94% full.

Biggest holes:
UA to Denver
DL to Detroit
AA to LaGuardia
SWA to Nashville
JetBlue to Orlando
Breeze to Charleston

*figures all based off airline info so there is room for error
Click to expand...
Just seeing that the format isn’t as clean as I had hoped- sorry. Hoping it’s still understandable. All in all, really good numbers this morning!
 
NR2Portland said:
Just seeing that the format isn’t as clean as I had hoped- sorry. Hoping it’s still understandable. All in all, really good numbers this morning!
Click to expand...
It seems like a morning route to Denver is a no-brainer--huge connection to United's west coast network. I've also taken the existing flight about a half dozen times this year and every single one has been completely full.

It's a little surprising how bad Jetblue yields are but I'm wondering if that's due to B6 having direct to pretty much anywhere out of Boston?
 
Since I haven't been out West in over 10 years, is there a big difference between UA destinations available from Denver, and those they fly to from O'Hare?
 
I am wondering due to B6 code sharing with United that instead of going to JFK, people are using United as the carrier, but getting B6 points if you book through the jetblue website. I am going to Vegas in November and it was cheaper to go through B6 using United planes.
 
MarkHB said:
Since I haven't been out West in over 10 years, is there a big difference between UA destinations available from Denver, and those they fly to from O'Hare?
Click to expand...
United has significantly pivoted to Denver for their west coast capacity because there are far more gates and fewer slot limitations. Chicago is still a major hub for west-bound traffic but more and more of United's west coast destinations are connecting through Denver. ORD has more gates overall but significantly more airline demand for gates and slots which allows DIA to be much, much more flexible. Here is an interesting article with Scott Kirby about their Denver strategy: https://www.cpr.org/2026/09/04/united-airlines-ceo-scott-kirby-denver-ai-sustainable-fuel/

An interesting couple of quotes, talking about United flights from Denver:
And it was a little over 300 flights a day [in 2015]. I think it’s 560 this summer. We're on the way to growing it to 700. I don't remember if it had any long-haul international destinations, but now we have many. We just added Paris. So it's a growing, successful hub.
Click to expand...
 
Island Frye said:
It's a little surprising how bad Jetblue yields are but I'm wondering if that's due to B6 having direct to pretty much anywhere out of Boston?
Click to expand...
It's a side-effect of JetBlue's weakening position at JFK. B6 used to feed a decent amount of connecting traffic through JFK, but JFK has become more of a O&D station for JetBlue.

United has significantly pivoted to Denver for their west coast capacity because there are far more gates and fewer slot limitations. Chicago is still a major hub for west-bound traffic but more and more of United's west coast destinations are connecting through Denver. ORD has more gates overall but significantly more airline demand for gates and slots which allows DIA to be much, much more flexible. Here is an interesting article with Scott Kirby about their Denver strategy: https://www.cpr.org/2026/09/04/united-airlines-ceo-scott-kirby-denver-ai-sustainable-fuel/
Click to expand...
For all the reasons you mentioned, I think it's only a matter of time before DEN goes year-round. I remember Paul Bradburry mentioned DEN would go year-round in a presentation a couple years ago, but perhaps UA backed out.

I could easily see DEN being 1x daily from November-April and 2x daily from May-October.

I don't normally enjoy redeye flights, but I think a "half-redeye" that leaves DEN at midnight and arrives at PWM at ~5:30-6 am, turns around and heads back to DEN at 8 would be perfect from a scheduling standpoint:)
 
Last edited:
Cosakita18 said:
It's a side-effect of JetBlue's weakening position at JFK. B6 used to feed a decent amount of connecting traffic through JFK, but JFK has become more of a O&D station for JetBlue.


For all the reasons you mentioned, I think it's only a matter of time before DEN goes year-round. I remember Paul Bradburry mentioned DEN would go year-round in a presentation a couple years ago, but perhaps UA backed out.

I could easily see DEN being 1x daily from November-April and 2x daily from May-October.

I don't normally enjoy redeye flights, but I think a "half-redeye" that leaves DEN at midnight and arrives at PWM at ~5:30-6 am, turns around and heads back to DEN at 8 would be perfect from a scheduling standpoint:)
Click to expand...
The once a day to Denver is already year-round but I think your expectation for a second flight to start seasonal is probably right. I think it's more likely that it is a late arrival to PWM, overnights at the Jetport, and leaves with the big morning rush in order to hit the morning DIA banks.
 
Delta had numerous 757 flights on a daily basis (CVG and ALB) out of Portland in the late 90's and that was with a 6800' runway. Though it is a rare occurrence today I personally don't think it is that newsworthy but props to Adam Bartow for researching the difference between the 757 and A321. This Delta charter flight in 2019 was a bigger story showing that PWM can accommodate international service to Europe if the demand is there.

IMG_6031.jpeg
 
Last edited:
I still think, when we finally get the FIS built (some on, Sue, give us all a useful bribe!), the Jetport should pursue Icelandair. We could still proclaim "Nonstop to Europe!" (since Iceland is considered part of Europe), but look at the connections on the other side! Non-stop to Gatwick gets you to London; going to KEF gets you 1-stop to almost every European capital (the biggest one I didn't see is Madrid, but they do go to Barcelona which might be a bigger draw), and it's in easy-sized chunks rather than 6 hours and then 2 hours.

Edit: Other airlines DO fly direct from KEF to Madrid, but I don't know how easy it is to book or make that connection.
 
Icelandair would be wonderful but Portland may not be a large enough market for them seeing that Pittsburgh (seasonal) is the smallest airport they serve in the United States and they are also operate out of Boston which is probably too close. They do have a codeshare agreement with JetBlue which may be beneficial to some travelers.
 
I know there are people in the Portland area who have, or at least had, connections with Icelandair, so maybe they can add a little juice ;) .

(And coming to Portland could potentially help grow their market, seeing as there wouldn't be the level of competition they face at Logan, and that the overall PWM experience is a lot nicer than Logan's if you're driving to the airport, especially from the north side.)
 
Portlander said:
Icelandair would be wonderful but Portland may not be a large enough market for them seeing that Pittsburgh (seasonal) is the smallest airport they serve in the United States and they are also operate out of Boston which is probably too close. They do have a codeshare agreement with JetBlue which may be beneficial to some travelers.
Click to expand...

I agree that Icelandair is a bit of a stretch, but it’s not impossible. They fly 2-3x weekly to Halifax, Which is a slightly larger, but overall similar market to PWM in terms of population, passenger mix and seasonal demand.

Additionally, BOS is actually their busiest station in North America. They run 3x daily BOS-KEF during peak season. Icelandair is retiring their 767 fleet at the end of this year and replacing them with narrowbody aircraft, That means that BOS will actually see a reduction in overall Icelandair seats, and Terminal E Doesn’t have much room to add additional KEF Frequencies… For that reason, I could see Icelander using PWM As a “reliever airport” Of sorts. It would most likely be a seasonal 2-3x weekly service, Similar to their Halifax service.
 
Another interesting FIS consideration--I think an early international flight would be Porter and/or Air Canada from Toronto. The preclearance gates at Pearson are super constrained, but if one of them could fly the route out of another terminal it becomes significantly more economically feasible. Air Canada already has some strong alliances, I would assume it would be Porter trying to play disruptor
 
Island Frye said:
Another interesting FIS consideration--I think an early international flight would be Porter and/or Air Canada from Toronto. The preclearance gates at Pearson are super constrained, but if one of them could fly the route out of another terminal it becomes significantly more economically feasible. Air Canada already has some strong alliances, I would assume it would be Porter trying to play disruptor
Click to expand...
Agreed that either AC or Porter to YYZ / YTZ is the most realistic international service, and it’s been flown in the past by AC. However, US-Canada border crossings and air travel demand has fallen notably in the last year for **reasons** So I’d expect new Canada service to hold off until 2028 at least.

YYZ has US customs pre-clearance as well, so theoretically we wouldn’t need to wait for the FIS facility to be complete. Flights from Toronto essentially arrive as domestic flights,
 
Does anyone know why that Toronto service failed? Was the pre-clearance facility too crowded for a smaller service to be worth it? Was there insufficient demand?
 
Breeze announcing PWM-MYR today. Details to come.

However, the most significant announcement MX is making today is that they’re entering BOS
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top