New Routes of the Day – Americas (29 August 2021): Southwest between Eugene and Oakland/Las Vegas

Southwest made Eugene Airport in Oregon its newest destination with the launch on Sunday 29 April of not one but two new routes to the airport. There are now 2-daily flights on the 720-kilometre sector to Oakland in California and daily flights on the 1,125-kilometre route to Las Vegas in Nevada. Both routes will be operated by the airline’s 737-700s. Allegiant already serves both markets with 2-weekly flights; Mondays and Fridays to Las Vegas, and Thursdays and Sundays to Oakland. Prior to the pandemic Eugene had seen passenger numbers peak at just over 1.2 million in 2019. Demand fell by 55% last year to just over 500,000 passengers. In July this year, the airport handled 119,868 passengers at an average load factor of 86.7% according to the airport. This is almost identical to the 119,149 passengers handled in July 2019, suggesting that the airport has rebounded successfully from the pandemic. Eugene is the second busiest airport in the state of Oregon, well behind Portland PDX but ahead of Redmond/Bend and Medford.

Southwest serves 10 destinations non-stop from Portland

Southwest is currently offering between 19 and 24 daily departures from Portland PDX spread across 10 routes. Eight of these are served at least daily (Chicago MDW, Denver, Las Vegas, Oakland, Phoenix PHX, Sacramento, San Jose SJC and St. Louis) plus weekly flights to Dallas DAL and Kansas City.