Aside from Baha's note about DL pulling out of PDX, and NW code sharing with AS to get pax out through SEA..... As a gateway to the far-east, PDX makes a much better geographic location than SFO. SFO is quite a bit down the left-coast. With NW's presence in Seattle, having PDX also 'covered', leaves little opportunity for a competitor. And doesn't NW run some routes out of NRT with some A320s? PDX has been throwing some incentives about ever since DL left when they realized that they could do ATL originating flights to the far-east.. (the few that they do.) Nice airport otherwise, I quite like connecting through it. The Portland area may be home to Nike, but Intel has major facilities in the area, as do many pulp & paper manufacturers including Georgia-Pacific. Matthew On Jan 8, 2004, at 6:50 PM, Michael A. Burris wrote: > David / All: > > Portland has become an increasingly important > international departure point for the Asia Pacific Rim > countries. Is there something strategically > significant about Portland that warrants this > attention? Has their economy increased so > significantly as to offer continuous service point to > point, without being a transfer for other cities? > > I'm not knocking Portland by any stretch, but with > Seattle not so far North and San Francisco just south, > > I wonder if this will pan out in say two to three > years? What is Portland's largest industry? > > Thanks, > > Mike Burris > Cambridge, Mass > > "Fan of people in the know and locals." > > > > __________________________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo! > http://sbc.yahoo.com