Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Southwest Airlines to drop Portland service

Southwest Airlines is planning to drop its service to Portland starting Jan 6. Todd Woodard, spokesman at Spokane International Airport, said the decision follows Southwest’s move to drop service to Seattle at the start of this year. Southwest flies two flights to and from Portland daily. In terms of total passengers, Portland is the second most-frequent destination from Spokane, according to federal transportation numbers. But many of those flights involve connections from Portland to other locations. Seattle ranks ahead of Portland. With six flights daily, Alaska Airlines flies more passengers to and from Portland than Southwest does, the data show. Southwest is trying to reconfigure service to emphasize longer distances to major destinations, he said. Service to Portland was flying at about 60 percent capacity. “These are some of the shortest flights in the Southwest system,” Woodard said. Spokane will still have Southwest flights to Boise, Denver, Oakland, Las Vegas and Phoenix.