Northwest Airlines announces nonstop service from Portland to Amsterdam

This week Northwest Airlines announced that starting March 29, 2008 there will be daily nonstop service between Portland and Amsterdam, leaving at 4:05 p.m. from Portland and arriving in Amsterdam at 11 the following morning on an Airbus A330-200. Airline industry experts predict the route will be a hit with fliers, as it will connect Portland not only to the large Amsterdam travel market, but also with other major European cities that are frequently connected through Amsterdam’s famous Schiphol Airport.

This may not seem like a big deal to some people, but to those of us who live in Portland, it is. Up until this Amsterdam flight, Portland has only been connected nonstop to Frankfurt, so those of us who are not bankers couldn’t get anywhere worthwhile in Europe in one jump anyway. Flying from Portland to Amsterdam often took the better part of an entire day in elapsed time, so this approximately10-hour flight is a major coup, especially for us Amsterdam fans.

At the moment, the nonstop fare is starting at just under $850, including taxes, for a flight in early April of 2008, which is very competitive with those flights that feature a 7-hour stopover in Dallas that normally offer the best fares.

Northwest’s Amsterdam-bound flight 92 (I’m going to try to get them to change it to flight 420) can already be booked through the usual engines that offer the best airfare to Amsterdam.