To be clear, I live in the Portland area and I really enjoy using our airport. However, I also believe we need to be realistic in our expectations. This does not make me a Portland basher.

JAL’s LCC subsidiary ZipAir earlier (prior to the pandemic) mentioned Portland as a priority new destination in North America. Since then, they’ve launched service to Los Angeles and San Jose. No mention of Portland. Delta has been off the Tokyo route for three years now, so if JAL was really interested in the market, why haven’t they jumped in to fill the void? We’re now almost five months into 2023. There’s a lot mentioned about AS connectivity, but what is gained through a PDX service that is not already available through SEA? As SEA is served with the smaller 787-8, wouldn’t the focus be in growing that route further first rather than potentially diluting loads there?

Incidentally, I flew the DL PDX - NRT route multiple times back in its heyday. It often ran less than daily and on the smaller 767 versus the A330. O&D traffic even back then wasn’t that robust.

Sure, a JAL route to PDX may happen the in the future ( I hope it does), but the signs currently wouldn’t seem to support it. Particularly when JAL has a presence in five West coast gateways now (including YVR).

Now, rip away.