Klrduks

I know it is an alternative I would not use but Spirit Air does fly from PDX to Dallas. This may be soaking up some of the demand.

eponymous_coward

Why would flying to PDX-DFW (Dallas-Ft. Worth) soak up demand for PDX-DTW (Detroit-Wayne County)?

Klrduks

Sorry. Misread the comment/title. My bad.

Waitlisted

Not true, I used to fly NWA from PDX/DTW/CDG and back every 3 weeks, in the middle of winter. This was in the early 2000's On a A320 (PDX flight) it was mostly full and for the CDG part it it was a 4 hour layover going over and 1 coming back but was a good flight. This may have changed later in the decade pre-DL merger, but I know was alive and well when I was flying it often.

WebTraveler

It is a combination of a LOT of things. SEA and DTW are hubs for Delta, PDX is not. Even then, Delta is a smaller player in Portland. There are plenty of Delta flights to all its hubs. Right now there are three PDX-JFK flights. Put another DTW flight on and you'll need to pull back on some connecting traffic to JFK. It's all part of optimizing the schedule to keep the flights full at the right fare every day.

Add additional seats and the price you charge and the profit you make falls. You are also competing with other locations for additional flights. If it drops too much you can put the same plane on another route and make more money there.

There is also another function. Delta doesn't have the same following amongst Portland travelers that it does elsewhere.

Delta is doing just fine with it's decisions

xliioper

DTW-PDX seasonality varied on NW. I believe it went seasonal shortly after 9/11, resumed full year at some point later, and then went seasonal again in January 2006. Here's an article that mentions that fact from Dec 2005.

http://www.aviationpros.com/news/104...p-two-airports

"The airline is making flights from Detroit to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Portland, Ore., seasonal, ending in January and resuming in the spring. These flights have been seasonal in the past, Ebenhoch said."

Hard to believe now, but as you can see from the article that for a period of time, there were no non-stop flights between DTW-SLC prior to NW/DL merger.

Tanaka07

PDX-DTW begins August 30th!

drewcwsj

Makes it much easier to get to Ann Arbor for U of M football!!!

Hartmann

In 2015/2016 I was commuting weekly between PDX and MKE. I would split my connections between MSP and DTW when AS's SEA-MKE was too expensive. On my few DTW flights, it was always packed and at the time, the PDX-DTW flight wasn't a redeye (if I remember correctly).

I preferred connecting in DTW over MSP but later in my commuting the schedule just didn't work.

I will definitely miss the AS/DL partnership, the AA/AS options are often way too expensive or simply not offered.