Originally Posted by
tusphotog
Almost every time I've taken the really late PDX-LAX flight, it's stuffed to the gills. I can only think of one time when it wasn't and that was in the middle of January. Even that flight had 130-140 people on it.
As for PDX being the next CVG: there's a rather large WN presence at PDX, unlike CVG.
Same here, although I only flew the route once, but it was packed. At that time, fares were around $179+ R/T...
While I do not expect fares to go as low as DEN, but it should be at least around $199, not $250-$350...
IIRC, the average fare out of CVG was $340 or something... WN no longer has a significant competitive advantage with fuel hedges [ended in 2009 when the oil prices flopped to $35 per barrel], so I think they are just merely matching the fares of all airlines in PDX. As a matter of fact WN is charging higher than their normal price range out of PDX [calling $209+ OW PDX-BWI on a Wednesday a great fare]...
Checked the Passenger Traffic Report for PDX and as of April 2010, the #s are pretty much flat lining YTD [-.01%] which is absolutely not good for PDX since 2009 is the worst year since 9/11.