Mexicana to start nonstop service from Portland PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) =97 Mexicana Airlines said Wednesday it will offer=20 nonstop service to Portland, marking the latest windfall for an airport=20 that just two years ago was suffering from a dearth of international=20 destinations. The announcement comes less than six months after Lufthansa=20 committed to direct flights between Portland and Frankfurt, Germany that=20 are to begin on March 31. Adolfo Crespo, a Mexicana spokesman, confirmed=20 that the airline is opening a route to Portland, but he could not say when= =20 the flights would start or how many there would be. Mexicana was=20 considering nonstop service to Guadalajara three times a week, with a=20 connection to Mexico City, during the most recent negotiations, said Steve= =20 Johnson, a spokesman for the Port of Portland, which operates the Portland= =20 International Airport. Crespo said Mexicana would make an official=20 announcement Thursday at the Portland International Airport, where more=20 details would be released. Guadalajara is Mexico's second-largest business= =20 center and Portland's sister city, said Joe D'Alessandro, president of the= =20 Portland Oregon Visitors Association. The direct flights should lead to=20 more business between the cities, he said. "The potential that it offers=20 for future development is very, very strong. That's one of the things that= =20 is exciting," he said. "If it was just going to Cancun, that would be one=20 thing, but we're talking about a business center to a business center.=20 That's a totally different thing." Suzanne Miller, aviation director at the Port of Portland, said a study=20 commissioned by the Port showed the Lufthansa flights will add about $90=20 million in annual revenue to Oregon's coffers. A similar study on the=20 Mexicana flights' impact had not yet been completed earlier this month, she= =20 said. Oregon officials hope that Mexicana, which had also considered=20 Seattle and Charlotte, N.C., for the flights, will expand to a daily=20 service after testing the market with flights three days a week. "It's=20 basically a business decision and they need to feel that the numbers will=20 work out," D'Alessandro said. The addition of two nonstop international=20 flights within six months marks a significant upturn for Portland=20 International Airport, which lost its only direct international flight =97= =20 Delta Air Lines service to Tokyo =97 in 2001. Delta Air Lines started the=20 nonstop service in 1987. The final two routes, to Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan,= =20 moved from Portland to New York and Los Angeles, respectively. At the time,= =20 Delta said it had lost $40 million in potential revenue that could be=20 earned by originating the flights in U.S. hub airports. Since then, airport= =20 and city officials have been working hard to attract other international=20 flights. Oregon business leaders created a "travel bank" with $10.8 million worth of= =20 advance commitments and pledges to use Lufthansa's new service, which could= =20 have gone to Seattle instead. The airport also recently added nonstop=20 service to Hawaii three times a week. D'Alessandro said the business=20 community was pleased with the Port of Portland's efforts to recapture=20 international business despite recent setbacks. "I think they're doing very= =20 well, being very aggressive," he said. "We're in a time where the airline=20 industry is reeling and Portland has secured its only nonstop service to=20 Europe in its history. That's a pretty strong statement." He said airport=20 officials will try to secure a new Japanese connection in the next two to=20 three years, preferably with an airline with a hub in Tokyo that can offer= =20 flights to other Asian destinations. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.tha.gov.tt/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************