Portland International Airport

Travel+Leisure

In 2013, a Travel+Leisure magazine readers' poll named PDX as the best US airport, based on its on-time record, dining, shopping, and mass transportation into the main parts of the city. In 2015, 10 new restaurants were opened at PDX, making it a "foodie haven" according to travelers. PDX also got significant recognition for its unique carpet pattern, which was replaced throughout the entire airport with newer carpet that contains a similar design.

Condé Nast Traveler

In 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2010, PDX was identified as the top airport for business travelers in the United States by Condé Nast Traveler magazine. The Condé Nast ranking was based upon criteria including location and access, ease of connections, food, shops, amenities, comfort and design, and perceived safety and security; PDX received the top overall score, and the magazine noted the airport's environmentally friendly initiatives, including the airport's use of solar panels for power, its connection to the MAX Light Rail, and the recycling of its restaurants' used oil and grease.

J. D. Power and Associates

The 2015 and 2016 J.D. Power and Associates rankings for US "Large Passenger Airports" lists PDX at the #1 spot and overall highest amongst passenger satisfaction criteria.

In 2008, a J. D. Power and Associates study contradicted the magazine's assessment, ranking the airport 19th in overall airport satisfaction out of 21 US airports with from 10 to 30 million passengers per year. It scored Portland International Airport as "average" in the categories of check-in/baggage check, security check, and baggage claims. It also scored at the bottom of several categories, including overall airport satisfaction, airport accessibility, terminal facilities and food and retail services.

Air Line Pilots Association, International

In 2015 the Air Line Pilots Association, International, Airport and Ground Environment Group recognized Portland International Airport as the recipient of the Airport of the Year. The award was given as a result of the collabaration and partnering between PDX and ALPA on important on-going airport safety and construction issues.

Bicycle resources

A work station and assembly for repairing bicycles is located at the lower terminal roadway near the TriMet MAX Red Line station. There is also a "Tool check-out" located at the Oregon Welcome Center.

Mini-movie theater

In February 2017, the Hollywood Theatre, opened a microcinema at the Portland International Airport. This one-of-a-kind theatre features seventeen (17) seats, with additional room for standing only. The theatre location is post-security in the C concourse, near gate C5. The films shown will run for no longer than 15 minutes, are free of charge and will showcase the works of Pacific Northwest-based filmmakers, primarily focused on the unique culture of the Pacific Northwest.

Distillery

Operating at Portland International Airport since the summer of 2013, House Spirits Distillery upgraded and expanded their presence at PDX in 2017 from a mobile kiosk to a larger, permanent retail location on the C concourse, across from gate C6. As a leader in the American craft distilling resurgence, and the anchor of Portland's famous "Distillery Row", House Spirits Distillery was recognized as the nation's "Best New Specialty Retail Concept, Small Operator" as awarded in 2015 by the Airport Revenue News awards. The award recognizes the House Spirits immersive retail experience at Portland International Airport and its' offerings of product tastings, branded apparel and distilled beverages for purchase. House Spirits Distillery operates at PDX as the first distillery in the world to operate a spirits tasting room at an airport location.

In addition to selling spirits and other curated items, House Spirits Distillery will also provide mini classes to introduce PDX fliers to their products during airport down time. The new retail experience is inspired by their new facility in Southeast Portland which opened in November 2015 and expanded the company's production capacity sixfold.

Terminal

There is one passenger terminal in the airport, with five concourses split between two sides. These two sides are connected beyond the security by the "Concourse Connector," a walkway that was opened in August 2005. The airport also offers many complimentary services such as free Wi-Fi wireless internet access, a children's play area, and postal services.

The airport has a shopping mall behind its ticketing counters, with all shops and restaurants open every day. Because the state is one of the few in the nation with no sales tax, all stores offer tax-free shopping. The Port of Portland also requires all airport shops and restaurants to practice fair retail pricing—businesses are not allowed to charge more than at off-airport locations. Stores include national stores and Oregon-based ones such as Made in Oregon, Nike, Columbia Sportswear, Powell's Books, and Oregon Pendleton Shop among others. Food services also are a mix of national chains and local options.

Several local food carts are located within the pre-security concourse.

Concourses and terminals

The two sections of the main terminal (South and North) at Portland International Airport contain five concourses (A, B, C, D, E). In addition, Portland International Airport handles many operations from a variety of different cargo transportation airlines.

The international section of Concourse D was renamed the Governor Victor G. Atiyeh International Concourse to honor former Oregon Governor Victor G. Atiyeh, who was also known as "Trader Vic" for launching international tourism and trade initiatives during his term as Oregon Governor.

Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air are currently the airport's largest passenger carriers.

There are a total of 60 gates located within the two passenger terminals.

Future developments

In the latter half of 2016, the Port of Portland and several PDX air carriers approved a project intended to balance the use of the terminal and concourses at Portland International Airport. The subsequent project will extend Concourse E by 750 feet and add 6 new gates to the facility. With this project Southwest Airlines will relocate their operations from Concourse C to the newly expanded Concourse E. With the relocation of Southwest Airlines to Concourse E, Alaska and American Airlines will be the primary users of Concourse(s) A, B and C. Construction on this project is expected to begin in 2017 with significant completion in early 2020.

Airport lounges

Airlines and destinations

Note: All international arrivals (except flights from cities with customs pre-clearance) are handled at the far end of Concourse D, regardless of their departure concourse.

Public transportation

Public transit service to the airport is provided by TriMet, the metropolitan area's primary transit agency, with its MAX Red Line light rail service. The 1986-opened MAX Light Rail system was extended to the airport in 2001. The Red Line originally provided service as far as downtown Portland only, but in 2003 was extended beyond downtown, to Beaverton. The light rail station is located only about 150 ft (50 m) from the airport's baggage claim area. Prior to 2001, TriMet service to the airport consisted of bus route 72-82nd Avenue from 1970 to 1986, and route 12-Sandy Blvd. from 1986 to 2001.

History

Portland's first airport was on Swan Island, northwest of Downtown Portland on the Willamette River. The Port of Portland purchased 256 acres (104 ha) and construction began in 1926. Charles Lindbergh flew in and dedicated the new airfield in 1927.

By 1935 it was becoming apparent to the Port of Portland that the airport was becoming obsolete. The small airfield couldn't easily be expanded, nor could it accommodate the larger aircraft and passenger loads expected to become common to Portland. Plans immediately were conceived to relocate the outdated airfield to a larger site. The Swan Island Municipal Airport is now used by the Port of Portland for industrial parks.

Construction and early operations

The present PDX site was purchased by the Portland City Council in 1936. It was 700 acres (280 ha) bordered by the Columbia River in the north and the Columbia Slough in the south. The city council issued US$300,000 and asked the Port of Portland to sponsor a US$1.3 million Works Progress Administration (WPA) grant to develop the site into a "super airport". The project provided badly needed Great Depression-era jobs and was completed in 1940. The airport was designated Portland-Columbia Airport to distinguish it from then-operating Swan Island Airport. During World War II, the airfield was used by the United States Army Air Forces.

The "super airport" had a terminal on the north side, off Marine Drive, and five runways (NE-SW, NW-SE, and an E-W runway forming an asterisk). This configuration was adequate until a new terminal and a longer, 8,800-foot (2,700 m) east-west runway were constructed in 1952. View airport diagrams: 1955 and 1965

In 1948 the entire airport grounds were flooded during the Vanport Flood, forcing scheduled airline services to reroute to nearby Troutdale Airport. The grounds were under water for several months.

New terminal (1950s)

A new terminal opened in 1959, which for the most part serves as the present facility. The new terminal is located to the east of the original runways, and north of the then-new 8,800 ft (2,700 m) runway. Construction of a second east-west runway to the north made this a midfield terminal. At this point, all but the NE-SW (3/21) runway in the original "X" were abandoned and turned into taxiways. 3/21 was extended for use as a cross-wind runway. "International" was added to the airport's official designation after the 1950s-era improvements.

Plans made in 1968 to add a third runway by means of filling in parts of the Columbia River were met with vocal public opposition and scrapped. The airport switched from screening passengers at individual gates to screening all visitors at concourse entrances in 1973 as new FAA regulations went into effect. In 1974 the south runway was extended to 11,000 feet (3,400 m) to service the newest jumbo jets. The terminal building was renovated and expanded in 1977.

By the 1980s, the terminal building began an extensive renovation in order to update PDX to meet future needs. The ticketing and baggage claim areas were renovated and expanded, and a new Concourse D for Alaska Airlines was added in 1986. Concourse E was first to be reconstructed in 1992, and featured PDX's first moving sidewalks. The Oregon Marketplace, a small shopping mall, was added in the former waiting areas behind the ticket counters.

The early 1990s saw a food court and extension added to Concourse C, and the opening of the new Concourse D in 1994. This marked the first concessions inside secured areas, allowing passengers to purchase items without having to be re-screened.

An expanded parking garage, new control tower, and canopy over the curbside were finished in the late 1990s. Although hailed by architectural critics, the canopy blocked views of Mount Hood from the curbside. On July 31, 1997, during construction, the garage addition collapsed due to inadequate bolts holding girders together and inadequate securing of structural members, killing three steelworkers.

The present H-shape of the PDX terminal, designed by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, was completed on September 10, 2001 when the new A, B and C concourses, as well as the light rail line, were finished. Probably the most stunning portion of PDX's interior, the new concourses reflect a Northwest theme, focusing heavily on the nearby Columbia River. A huge celebration was to be held the following weekend, but the events of September 11, 2001 interceded. The new concourses, designed to be public spaces, were closed to non-passengers.

In August 2005, the concourse connector was opened. This is a long hallway on the secure side of the airport that connects the A, B and C concourses to the D and E concourses on the other side of the airport. If there is a long line at the checkpoint at one end of the airport, passengers may use the other checkpoint and walk through the connector to their desired concourse.

Domestic service

The April 1957 OAG shows 38 United departures a day, 10 West Coast, 8 Northwest and 6 Western. Alaska had four a week and Pacific Northern had three; Pan Am and Northwest both flew SEA-PDX-HNL and back, Pan Am with 5 DC-7C round trips a week and Northwest with four DC-6Bs. Portland's first jets were Pan Am 707-321s about October 1959.

In 1966 PDX had nonstop flights to SLC, DEN, ORD and no other cities farther east than Boise; in 1977 nonstops reached LAS-PHX-DEN-DFW-ORD and no others east of Boise. In 1967 United started PDX's first transcon nonstop, to JFK; it ended in 1973.

By 1974, the airport was served by Braniff, Cascade, Continental, Eastern, Hughes Airwest, Northwest Orient, Pan Am, United and Western, and the Seattle route was served by seven airlines with aircraft as large as Boeing 747s.

Air Oregon started short-haul service from Portland following deregulation in 1978, and by 1979 had routes to seven other cities in Oregon.

In the 1980s Air California had nonstop flights to Seattle, Reno and the Bay Area; PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines) had nonstops to San Francisco and one or two to Reno and Sacramento. In 2010 Northwest's former Honolulu service was eliminated by Delta altogether. In 2015, Delta resumed its seasonal service to Honolulu.

United was the dominant carrier at PDX during the regulated era and through the 1980s.

International service

The first international nonstop was Western's 720B to Vancouver in 1967.

United Airlines, then the dominant carrier at PDX, used Portland as a once-weekly stop for its Chicago-O'Hare-Tokyo-Narita service from 1983 to 1987. The flight stopped in Seattle/Tacoma six days a week and in Portland once a week. After United Airlines acquired Pan American World Airways' Asian routes in 1986, they were able to use Pan American World Airways' Boeing 747SP aircraft to eliminate the West Coast stop.

As United Airlines made plans to end Tokyo service from Portland, Delta Air Lines applied to begin Atlanta-Tokyo service via Portland using Lockheed L-1011 aircraft. Like United Airlines, Delta Air Lines lacked aircraft that could fly to Japan nonstop from the eastern United States; Delta Air Lines also lacked a West Coast hub at the time, and saw Portland as favorable international and domestic hub over Seattle, which was dominated by Northwest Airlines. After beginning Tokyo service in 1986, Delta Air Lines added a flight to Seoul in 1988, coinciding with the 1988 Summer Olympics; the Seoul flight was later extended to Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, and Taipei. By 1994, Delta Air Lines had introduced McDonnell Douglas MD-11 aircraft, and added another transpacific flight to Nagoya and domestic flights to New York City, Anchorage, Fairbanks and other destinations. Delta Air Lines' hub had peaked in 1998, with additional service to Osaka and Fukuoka.

The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis hurt Delta Air Lines's operation, and international travel decreased even further due to complaints about treatment at the immigration facility in Portland, leading it to be nicknamed "DePortland". The combination of these factors caused Delta Air Lines to discontinue what was then the last direct flight from Portland to Tokyo and from Portland to Nagoya in March 2001. This change brought local media scrutiny. This then combined with the resulting congressional pressure, caused the officials in charge of the immigration facility to address the problems.

Meanwhile, local travel businesses had begun recruiting other carriers. Lufthansa started direct flights to Frankfurt, Germany in 2003, but suspended the route in 2009 citing lack of profitability. Northwest Airlines introduced non-stop flights to Tokyo (Narita Airport (NRT) on June 10, 2004, reviving a route terminated by Delta. Mexicana Airlines also introduced service to Guadalajara and Mexico City; after 5 years of service, Mexicana Airlines withdrew in 2008 due to high fuel prices and change in demand.

Northwest Airlines added nonstop service to Amsterdam in 2008, which was at one time planned to continue to Mumbai. The service was reduced that year to a Northwest-operated Delta-flown 767-300, and occasionally a Northwest-operated Delta-flown 767-400. The service has since been fluctuating between 767-300s, 767-400s and A330-300s depending on the season. Air Canada operated seasonal service to Toronto from 2010 to 2012 but was then resumed on May 2016. Since 2014, three more foreign carriers have begun service at PDX: Volaris with service to Guadalajara, Condor with seasonal service to Frankfurt, and Icelandair with seasonal service to Reykjavik-Keflavik.

On May 31, 2016, Delta Air Lines announced seasonal nonstop service to London–Heathrow in the United Kingdom, which will begin from May 26, 2017.

Following its acquisition of Northwest, Delta Air Lines has maintained Northwest's nonstop flights to Amsterdam and Tokyo. The latter required a direct transfer of $3.5 million to Delta Air Lines by the Port of Portland to subsidize the route.

Airport expansions and renovations

Although plans have been studied to replace or relieve PDX traffic, planners prefer expansion. Salem, Oregon's McNary Field (SLE) and the Port of Portland's Hillsboro Airport (HIO) in Washington County have been suggested as future relievers. Between 1993 and 2007, Salem's airport had no scheduled airline flights. With resumption of commercial flights on June 7, 2007, the airport has planned terminal improvements using a preconstructed modular building. However, these flights have since been canceled.

Portland International Airport's south runway reopened in October 2011 after being rebuilt over the 2011 summer. The South Runway Reconstruction Project was the final phase of a three-year tarmac improvement program. The first two years focused on the north runway, with a rehabilitation of the surface and an extension to each end so it could replace the south runway during rebuilding.

The project was completed on time and under budget. As the Portland airport's longest, the south runway had seen routine maintenance and rehabilitation over the years, and the wear and tear of aircraft landings had deteriorated the pavement joints and subsurface base. The project team chose to rebuild it; pavement materials were evaluated and an all-concrete surface was chosen. With a pavement design life of 40 years, construction-related aircraft noise impacts on neighborhoods will be lessened in the future.

The new concrete is 19 inches (480 mm) thick and used an estimated 180,000 square yards (150,000 m²) of materials—enough to pave a two-lane road for about 26 miles (42 km). The old asphalt runway, which was excavated in spring 2011, was completely recycled.

The airport's carpet, installed in 1987, was designed to stylize the criss-crossing north and south runways. Beginning in 2014, a new design replaced the original pattern. In response, many residents created products to celebrate the carpet as a local icon.

Along with the carpet replacement, the Port of Portland plans to renovate the security checkpoints and immigration facilities as part of its PDXNext project. These changes are budgeted at $57 million and $940,000, respectively, and are expected to be complete by August 2016.

The Port of Portland is embarking on a $100 million plus expansion of Concourse E on the airport terminal's north side. The intent of the project is to balance the use of both the north and south concourses and to create more efficient passenger flow and transit through the facility. The south side is currently used predominantly by both Alaska Air Group and Southwest Airlines, which together account for more than two-thirds of PDX passengers. When the work is complete, Southwest Airlines will move to the newly expanded E Concourse. The addition to Concourse E will add 6 new passenger gates and additional concessions. The Port of Portland has already torn down hangers formerly used by Atlantic Aviation, the general aviation operator at PDX, to make room for the concourse extension. Work crews will begin construction in early 2017, with a preliminary completion date in 2020.

Accidents and incidents