Virgin America announced Wednesday that Portland, Ore. will be the airline's next destination.
"We're pleased to welcome Virgin America to Portland International Airport," said Bill Wyatt, Port of Portland executive director. "Virgin America is known for its award-winning service and for doing things differently, and will bring PDX travelers new options for two of our most popular routes—Los Angeles and San Francisco."
The San Francisco-based airline will begin two daily non-stop flights from Los Angeles (LAX) and one daily non-stop from San Francisco (SFO) to Portland (PDX) beginning Jun. 6.
"Our airline launched in 2007 because we believed travelers deserved better choices in air travel," said Virgin America President and CEO David Cush. "We are excited to start new service to PDX and we hope our unique blend of low fares and inventive service will be a fresh alternative for Portland travelers."
Portland will be the 18th destination for the award-winning airline.
The schedule is as follows:
SFO - PDX
Flight 816 SFO 13:30 PDX 15:20
PDX - SFO
Flight 817 PDX 12:35 SFO 14:30
LAX - PDX
Flight 802 LAX 9:35 PDX 11:50
Flight 808 LAX 19:10 PDX 21:25
PDX - LAX
Flight 803 PDX 6:30 LAX 8:50
Flight 809 PDX 16:05 LAX 18:25
"Although there are strong business and leisure travel ties between California and Portland, the West Coast to PDX market generally has higher fares than similar flights to Seattle and the reason is competition," said Cush. "We are thrilled to offer Portland travelers a different choice – in an industry often characterized by monotony.
Connecting flights will allow Portland flyers to reach the following Virgin America cities: Boston (BOS), Cancun (CUN), Chicago (ORD), Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), Fort Lauderdale (FLL), Las Vegas (LAS), New York (JFK), Philadelphia (PHL), San Diego (SAN) and Washington Dulles (IAD).
Despite other U.S. carries are cutting capacity, Virgin America continues to expand. The airline annouced in January that it will start service to Philadelphia on Apr. 4.
Virgin Ameica will have 50 aircraft in service as of Apr. 2012, up from 28 aircraft in the first quarter of 2010.
