Alaska Airlines Reconnects Portland, Redmond

Seattle-based Alaska Airlines had announced plans to resume its popular, yet short, route between Redmond and Portland, both located in Oregon. The route spans 116 miles and is a much faster alternative to the nearly three-hour drive between the cities.

The once-daily service between the cities will resume on Nov. 29, 2023 on board the carrier’s 76-seat Embraer E175s. The service is currently only scheduled to be operated seasonally ending on April 10, 2024, but it could be extended if the route performs well.

A Horizon Air Embraer E175 operating for Alaska Airlines.
(Photo: AirlineGeeks | Katie Bailey)

Alaska last operated the flights in November of 2021 using the Q400 and ended the service due to “insufficient passenger demand due to covid.” Alaska Airlines’ Q400 aircraft, which has since been retired from the airline’s fleet, does have the same number of seat as the E175, but it didn’t offer a first or premium cabin like the jet aircraft, and it was obviously much slower since it was a turboprop aircraft.

While Alaska Airlines stopped the route in 2021, other airlines have since then. Notably, San Francisco-based Boutique Air briefly served the route between the two cities, but they used a private FBO in Portland, so passengers needed to go through security a second time in Portland if they connected on to another airline. Boutique operated the route from Oct. of 2020 to July 2021 on a once-to-twice-daily basis depending on the day, and then again sporadically operated the route in November and December of 2022. They used a much smaller, the 8-seat Pilatus PC12.

A Boutique Air Pilatus PC-12 in Greenville, Miss. (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)

This will be the fifth route Alaska Airlines flies from Redmond. They already operate flights to San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle-Tacoma.

All flights and information presented in this article are subject to change.

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Joey Gerardi

Joey has always been interested in planes, for as long as he can remember. He grew up in Central New York during the early 2000s when US Airways Express turboprops ruled the skies. Being from a non-aviation family made it harder for him to be around planes and would only spend about three hours a month at the airport. He was so excited when he could drive by himself and the first thing he did with the license was get ice cream and go plane spotting for the entire day. When he has the time (and money) he likes to take spotting trips to any location worth a visit but has a special interest in Essential Air Service Airports. He got his degree in Aviation Management and Operations from WMU in June of 2022, and is currently working full time for an airline in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

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