LUFTHANSA is homing in on the UK market for its new services to Portland, Oregon, which start on 31 March 2003. Portland is one of the few major west coast US cities not served directly from London (and indeed Europe) and LH says that with a 1030 departure convenient same-day connections are available from Heathrow, Birmingham and Edinburgh. Lufthansa will operate daily flights with 247-seat Airbus A340s departing from Frankfurt in Portland at 1100 local time. Frankfurt is an excellent hub and, whilst the official connecting time is 45 minutes for passengers with only hand luggage, this can be reduced to as little as a quarter of an hour, the helpful staff making it possible. http://www.lufthansa.co.uk