essxjay

Welcome aboard the SeaPort Airlines thread.

In anticipation of the most important question from the forthcoming FAQ: Why, yes. Yes they do have a frequent flyer program:

• Destinations served

Pacific Northwest airports
Boeing Field, Seattle (BFI)
Portland International (PDX)
Eastern Oregon Regional, Pendleton (PDT)
Newport Municipal (ONP)
Astoria Regional (AST)

Mid-South airports
Memphis International (MEM)
Hot Springs Memorial Field (HOT)
Boone County, Harrison (HRO)
Jonesboro Municipal (JBR)
South Arkansas Regional, El Dorado (ELD)
Kansas City International (MCI)
Salina Municipal (SLN)
Dallas Love Field (DAL) (service commencement TBA)

F5 may be followed on Twitter and Facebook (watch for frequent giveaways).

essxjay

This space reserved for future info

essxjay

Thinking ahead to the next FT moderator meeting slated for Nov. 6 in Seattle, I began comparison fare shopping a few weeks ago. Among the palatable options are UA, AS, K5 and Amtrak. (Sorry, Greydog.)

Flying, though my preferred mode in just about any situation, has become simply unpleasant between PDX-SEA for the nil (or negative) savings in door-to-door travel time, and so I typically opt for biz class on Amtrak's Cascades trains. I've been itching to test drive SeaPort Airlines ever since their inception and figured I'd mark my return to moderator duties with the perfect splurge -- a RT ticket on F5 in November. For an FTer, TS/S mod and lifelong aviation romantic I'm thinking that trip report will be epic.

MorganB

Per the local newspaper in El Dorado, Arkansas, they will begin service between Dallas Love Field (DAL) and El Dorado (ELD) in December. They will be using one of Continentals check-in desks.

Rad456

I have seen SeaPort RT flights on Skyauction.com. May be able to find a deal there

essxjay

^ Thanks for the h/u. This is all I was able to find at EDNT onine: LINK. It doesn't specify when in December service will commence but I'll keep an eye out for it.

Tres interesting, Rad. Thanks muchly.

As for my near-future plans, problem solved: My first TSA-free™ commercial flight.

essxjay

Proposed expansion to Imperial Valley (Calif.) Municipal (IPL):

MorganB

Update on Seaport ELD-DAL service:

Per Seaport on Facebook: "No updates yet, but we'll post something on DAL when a date is set."

Per the El Dorado News Times Saturday Jan 22, 2011 pg 3A continued on 8A:

"He (Alderman Dianne Hammond) also discussed Seaport Airlines, and said the air carrier is still working to secure a flight to Dallas. Seaport now offers three flights to memphis..... Teague said he has had positive comments from the travelers who have used the airline, and he said citizens in the Golden Triangle appear to be embracing the airline service.

Alderman Willie McGhee inquired about marketing for the airline, and Teague pointed to SARA's website at www.flyeld.com. He also said a $150,000 matching grant had been approved for marketing, but the grand hinged on a partnership with two other essential air service communities who use Seaport in Arkansas."

fairviewroad

Astoria service in serious jeopardy:
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/i...tml#incart_hbx

Limited service to Newport is more likely to continue:
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/i...l_to_keep.html

fairviewroad

Bizarre. Latest SeaPort news is discussion with Salem about twice daily SLE-PDX service, M-F only...plus an undisclosed number of flights to Newport (ONP). One-way fare SLE-PDX would be $39.

I say bizarre because currently Hut Shuttle provides bus service from Salem direct to PDX every two hours practically around the clock. IOW Hut has more departures on a single day than SeaPort would have all week

Yet someone thinks there's a need for this? I mean, at $39 the SeaPort ticket would only be $4 more than the (rather steep) bus fare...so I'd probably try it out for the novelty of it...but if you're connecting through PDX elsewhere you'd still have to clear TSA in PDX anyhow (unless you're connecting to another SeaPort destination, so I can see how this would be useful to go from SLE to BFI). But just in terms of going to PDX even to connect, the flight wouldn't really save much time over the shuttle or driving oneself.

DownTheRappitHole

So what's the service of SeaPort like?

fairviewroad

SeaPort to begin flying to SLE (Salem, OR) on April 25th. One-way fares to PDX begin at just $29 which is cheaper than the HUT (bus) shuttle. However, flights are extremely limited at just 2x per weekday for a grand total of 90 seats per week.

The service is being marketed as a way to get from SLE to SEA (BFI, actually) which I think is the only way this thing works. It doesn't make much sense as a way to get to PDX for the purposes of transferring to a mainline carrier at PDX...just as easy to drive. But if you have a brief connection at PDX on to Seattle (maybe even a same-plane connection) then you get to Seattle rather quickly. So the $29 ticket isn't really as relevant as what they end up charging from SLE-BFI. Tickets aren't on sale yet.

Allegedly this will include flights from SLE to Newport which doesn't make much sense to me, unless they simply make SLE a stop on the existing flights between PDX and Newport.

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/arti...news|text|Home

lKTyS7UPY

SLE is now bookable on the SeaPort website. SLE-PDX one-way $29-49; SLE-BFI one-way $99-159.

Interestingly, SLE-BFI is significantly cheaper than PDX-BFI.

fairviewroad

So, with SLE being a stop on the way to/from Newport, there will in most cases be just a handful of people boarding each flight at SLE and I would bet in many cases just one or two. A newspaper article in SLE suggested that SeaPort will not be hiring any ground staff in SLE. Indeed, with so few passengers it would not seem to be economically feasible to hire even just one person. So, how are ground ops handled at SeaPort's other minor stations? Does the pilot check in passengers? What about checked bags?

At least with Pendleton and Newport, the plane has to be "turned" which could justify a ground crew. But the stops at SLE will just be a brief touchdown...fuel issues if any could be handled by the FBO...but it seems odd that they would literally have no one at the "check-in counter" as it were. I suppose there are lots of small puddle-jumper airports in Alaska with the same issue.

oregold

Obviously SeaPort is going to minimize its expenses at SLE until it sees what the SLE-BFI market looks like. Since Salem is Oregon's capitol I suspect that state travel to/from BFI will be steady, as will business traffic heading to Seattle for one-day turnaround trips. SLE generated 46,000 passengers in the first year DL was here to SLC, so filling the little PC-12s should not be a challenge, but the proof is in the pudding. Service to SEA with interline connections would be the true test, but neither QX or anybody else has shown much interest there. I wish SeaPort well and hope that SLE becomes a major (and profitable) traffic generator for them.