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I'm not familiar with flying from Portland, Oregon, to Detroit, but I need to acquire some data for a situation I'm involved in. Based on Google Flights, I cannot find a single direct flight from Portland to Detroit in the future. I am not sure if this is due to COVID, or if this is just the normal situation.

Is there anyone who has flown this route before and can share some insight?

If there was no direct flight form Portland to Detroit, I would be a bit surprised. Detroit is a major airport. Portland is medium sized airport, and I would expect at least 1 or 2 direct flights to Detroit a day.

Is there a website where I can search if there were direct flights in the past?

DavidRecallsMonica
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student010101
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1 Answers1

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Alaska and Delta have both flown PDX-DTW nonstops in the recent past (5 years).

Alaska had a redeye in 2017, but as reported at FlyerTalk and confirmed in their archived January 2019 timetable, this was changed to a seasonal route and then discontinued altogether.

Delta inherited the DTW hub (and PDX-DTW) with its 2008 merger with Northwest Airlines. According to their archived November 2019 timetable, they were operating one flight per day during the off season.

My armchair analyst's suspicion is that there is not enough demand for this route to justify more service. Alaska would want to route connecting passengers through its larger hub at SEA, and as for Delta, they have been focused on building up JFK and LAX, although the route is likely to return after the COVID-19 shock fades.

As for low-cost carriers, Southwest and Spirit serve both airports, but neither seems to have been interested in the route.

choster
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