SeaPort's business falls

SeaPort Airlines provides a 25-minute passenger flight from Astoria to Portland, but in its second year of service, passenger numbers have decreased.

This June's passenger count was half of what it was last year.

SeaPort has tried changing flight times, offering promotional rates and many other advertising strategies to make the service work. But so far - three-quarters of the way through a two-year subsidy plan - the planes are still averaging less than two passengers per flight. Last month, the company dropped Astoria's third round-trip daily flight to Portland and added a third flight between Portland and Newport.

Newport's counts have been more encouraging, ranging from 49 to 127 passengers per week in the past few months compared with Astoria's range of 29 to 54 passengers.

Many point to the shorter distance between Astoria and Portland - on top of the faltering economy - as the reason for the low numbers.

Read more at The Daily Astorian.

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