Amsterdam nonstops no flight of fancy

Business and government leaders embraced Tuesday's announcement that Northwest Airlines will begin connecting the Rose City with the land of tulips.

Word of a new Portland-Amsterdam nonstop flight began circulating Monday, but Doug Steenland, Northwest's chief executive, made it official during a morning gathering at Portland International Airport. Daily nonstops will begin March 29.

He and others said the new flights would create competition for Portland-area leisure travelers who until now have enjoyed only one trans-Atlantic nonstop, to Frankfurt on Lufthansa. The flights also are expected to strengthen business ties between Oregon and Europe.

"This is a very big deal," said Dan Zenka, brand management director of FEI Co., a high-tech company with 400 employees at its Hillsboro headquarters and 575 more at a site in the Netherlands. "We've lived a long time without convenient connections."

Similarly, Ted Cullen, travel director at Nike, said he was "thrilled." The Beaverton-area shoe and sports apparel maker's European headquarters are about a half-hour from Amsterdam.

"This is great for Nike and encouraging news for consumers," Cullen said.

Airline pricing can change hourly, and Northwest did not say what it plans to charge for a round-trip flight. On Tuesday, pricing on Northwest's Web site for a PDX-Amsterdam nonstop leaving March 29 and returning a week later was $1,051 for economy class, including fees and taxes.

Flights on the same dates from PDX to Frankfurt on Lufthansa were listed at $1,041 on Lufthansa's Web site.

Bill Wyatt, executive director of the Port of Portland, which operates the airport, said Northwest approached the Port about starting the Amsterdam service. Northwest has been a business savior at PDX since it began Portland-Japan nonstops in June 2004, filling a hole left by Delta Air Lines after it abandoned its PDX-Asia routes in 2001.

Wyatt said he thinks there is enough business and leisure demand from PDX to Europe to support Northwest's and Lufthansa's services.

Travelers will be able to connect throughout the West via partnerships Northwest has with Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air. In Amsterdam, travelers can connect to more than 80 destinations in Europe, Africa, India and the Middle East on Northwest alliance partner KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

The flights will be on Airbus A330-200s, seating 32 in business class and 211 in economy. The planes feature on-demand movies, music and games in seatback-mounted monitors.

Laura Liu, Northwest's senior vice president, international, said the airline intends to keep the flights daily. Lufthansa found that it had to cut back service to several times a week in winter months because travel slows to and from Portland.

"We think it's important for the business community that when they want to fly, we're ready," Liu said.

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oreg ... xml&coll=7

Grr, I wish NW would bring some A330-200's into DTW, now all we get are the -300's!

That's a long flight on an A330! 10 hours in each direction...it's probably near the edge of the A330's range. Lufthansa is using an A340-300 on the route.

Good news for PDX and NW, I remember in the '90s PDX used to be an international hub for DL's Asian flights but not sure if it has ever had much European service besides the LH. This is a good example of a new point to point longhaul sector that is not necessarily obvious in terms of tourism but is made viable by the concentration of certain corporate or industry operations, another one would be EK's upcoming IAH-DXB service.

Adam according to Great Circle Mapper, PDX-AMS is actually slightly shorter than SFO-NRT which NW also flies with A332, apparently this is comfortably within the 332s range but would be a bit tighter with the shorter-range (and more common) A333. PDX-AMS is about the same distance as JFK-IST which Turkish flies with A332.

FYI folks NW is now the world's largest operator of A330s, was kind of surprised by that but since we don't get them in NYC I had never thought about it, just assumed it would have been EK (which is close).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nonstop2AUH

Adam according to Great Circle Mapper, PDX-AMS is actually slightly shorter than SFO-NRT which NW also flies with A332, apparently this is comfortably within the 332s range but would be a bit tighter with the shorter-range (and more common) A333. PDX-AMS is about the same distance as JFK-IST which Turkish flies with A332.

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Interesting. I have underestimated the great A330!

And I never knew about the Great Circle Mapper before. Cool site!

No problem Adam, playing with the GC mapper is quite addictive though so hope you don't get hooked as I am. The A332 in particular is a more capabale aircraft that I (and I think alot of people) realized, and it's actually sold surprisingly well in the last few years, I guess until 787 it was really the only new-generation aircraft in its size class (as 767 pax orders trailed off).

Another long A332 sector I found looking around between the mapper and some other sites is LAX-DUB on EI, also AF flies them SEA-CDG and IAH-CDG. Tried to find what are the longest A330 scheduled sectors but couldn't find anything specific. If anyone knows please post it!

Is Google Earth as accurate as Circle? And I thought PDX had BA as a client.