British Airways says it will be the first carrier to offer a year-round direct flight from the UK to Portland, Oregon with a five-per-week service launching on 1 June 2020.
Flights will operate on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday on board BA’s new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. They will depart from Heathrow Terminal 5 at 1505, landing in Portland at 1655 local time, with the return service leaving at 1845 and arriving at 1210 local time.
Neil Chernoff, BA’s director of networks and alliances, said: “Portland will be a fantastic addition to our route map. As a major technology and innovation hub, the city is drawing ever-increasing numbers of international visitors. Since 2015 we’ve launched routes to Pittsburgh, Charleston, Nashville, New Orleans and San Jose, and this is key to our joint business strategy which is growing across North America. We’re confident the route will be warmly welcomed by both business and leisure travellers.”
In addition to the Portland route, BA said it will work with its Atlantic joint business partners American Airlines, Finnair and Iberia to add eight new services between Europe and North America from next summer.
American Airlines is launching a new service between Boston and Heathrow to complement flights currently operated by BA. The carrier is also extending its summer seasonal flights between Dallas-Fort Worth and Rome, Chicago and Barcelona, Chicago and Athens, Philadelphia and Prague, and Philadelphia and Lisbon into the winter season.
Meanwhile, Iberia has a new route from Madrid to Washington DC.
Vasu Raja, senior vice president of network strategy at American Airlines, said: “With this new British Airways flight between London and Portland, American and our partners will offer more than 1,000 flights every week between North America and Europe.”