SLO airport adding flights to San Diego and Portland
The San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport will add direct flights to San Diego and Portland, Ore., with Alaska Airlines.
It announced the two daily, non-stop flights in partnership with Visit SLO Cal on Sept. 4. Both services are slated to begin in 2020—San Diego on Jan. 7, and Portland on June 18.
The flights mark the fifth and sixth new routes the airport has announced within 33 months, bringing its nonstop destinations to nine. These include Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Dallas/Ft. Worth and Las Vegas.
The SLO airport is catching up with the region’s other commercial airport Santa Barbara Municipal Airport, which has 12 nonstop destinations, including recently-added Salt Lake City and Sacramento.
“These two new flights to Portland and San Diego, coming so close on the heels of our Dallas/Ft. Worth and Las Vegas flights, have made 2019 our most productive year on record,” said Airport Director Kevin Bumen, in a news release. “We are excited to offer the Central Coast more options than ever before, and to bring more visitors to experience our incredible community.”
To support the new flights, Visit SLO Cal will expand marketing efforts in San Diego and add Portland, the release said.
This is the second time the airport has coordinated with Alaska Airlines to open new air service. In 2017, Alaska launched a direct flight to Seattle.
“We are excited to expand our nonstop flight offerings from San Luis Obispo to both San Diego and Portland, two new routes we know will be popular with travel and leisure enthusiasts,” said Jeffery Etherington, a spokesman for Alaska Airlines, in the release.
• Contact Annabelle Blair at ablair@pacbiztimes.com.
