SeaPort Airlines has added and stopped service in five communities in the last three years, including its most recent drop of Portland-Seattle service.
SeaPort Airlines has added and stopped service in five communities in the last three years, including its most recent drop of Portland-Seattle service.
That has some people questioning SeaPort’s motives. Is the airline sincere about its commitment to small-town air service? Or is the company in it for the subsidies, the incentives and free marketing?
A SeaPort official says the airline is trying to make things work for everyone — but it can’t fly where it can’t make a profit. Still, the Portland-based airline has lost some fans.
SeaPort started service between Portland and Seattle in the summer of 2008, and the following spring, subsidized by $4.5 million in state and federal grants, began service to Newport and Astoria. It left Astoria about the same time the subsidies ran out in March 2011, then added a stop in Salem in late April. The airline left Salem after barely three months, giving less than a week’s notice to the city that spent $10,000 marketing it.
Read more at OregonLive.com.
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