British Airways has relaunched plans for a new route from London Heathrow to Portland, Oregon.
In late 2019, BA announced plans for a new route from London Heathrow to Portland from June 2020. After an initial delay, the route launch was cancelled due to COVID-19.
The route has now been put back on sale from Friday 3 June 2022.
BA has today also relaunched its route to Pittsburgh. The airline has also relaunched summer seasonal flights from Gatwick to New York JFK and suspended Gatwick – Las Vegas.
British Airways has suspended plans to launch a new route from London Heathrow to Portland, Oregon.
BA was due to launch the route on 1 June 2020 with the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft. This had been postponed until Wednesday 2 September 2020.
The route has today, Tuesday 21 July 2020, been taken off sale and removed from BA’s timetables entirely.
With no prospect of an imminent relaxation of travel restrictions to the US and reduced demand well into 2021, it is not surprising to see the launch of a new long-haul route postponed as they typically take a couple of years to establish themselves.
British Airways has launched a new long-haul route from London Heathrow to Portland, Oregon.
BA will fly from London Heathrow Terminal 5 to Portland International Airport five times weekly from Monday 1 June 2020. Flights will not operate on Tuesday and Thursday.
Flights will be operated by a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft in a three class configuration with Club World business class, World Traveller Plus premium economy and World Traveller economy cabins.
Known for its environmental consciousness and independent spirit, Portland is of course close to other BA North American gateways Seattle and Vancouver, and it is possible to “mix and match” arrival and departure airports in North America. BA also codeshares with Alaska Airlines from Portland to a number of airports on the US West Coast.
This is a relatively unusual route choice for BA in that Portland is already served on a summer seasonal basis by Delta. BA has historically launched new transatlantic routes from London Heathrow to airports that do not have any transatlantic services to London.
Flight BA299 Depart London Heathrow 15:05 Arrive Portland International Airport 16:55 (Daily, except Tuesday & Thursday) Flight BA298 Depart Portland International Airport 18:45 – Arrive London Heathrow 12:10 (Daily, except Tuesday & Thursday)
Update
Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 which has resulted in the near complete suspension of BA flights, the launch of this route has been suspended indefinitely.
Delta at London Heathrow (Image Credit: London Heathrow)
Delta Air Lines has announced it is to launch a new direct route from London Heathrow to Portland, Oregon from Friday 26 May 2017.
The route will operate four times a week on a summer seasonal basis to Portland International Airport using a Boeing 767-300 aircraft. The service will end in early October 2017, but will resume in May 2018.
Flights will operate from London Heathrow Terminal 3 (an earlier draft stated Terminal 4 before Delta consolidated all services at Terminal 3) and will be codeshared with Delta’s UK transatlantic joint-venture partner Virgin Atlantic.
This route will be the only direct flight between London and Portland. Flights are on sale now at the websites of both Delta and Virgin Atlantic.
The flight time from London to Portland is approximately 11 hours.
This is also a route that had been a likely contender for a new direct service by British Airways with its Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Delta’s announcement may prompt a rethink on BA’s part. BA may either launch this with a near daily year round service route, or choose another US city that is not already served from London.
