SeaPort Airlines was a US-based regional airline with its headquarters at Portland International Airport in Portland, Oregon. It operated scheduled service from its bases at Portland International Airport and Memphis International Airport . It also operated a Southwest region from San Diego International Airport and Hollywood Burbank Airport, as well as international service to San Felipe International Airport, the airport's most recent commercial service, from 2013 to January 2016. SeaPort Airlines used the callsign "Sasquatch" to communicate with air traffic controllers. The carrier played off this in early 2013 when it introduced "Roger, The SeaPort Airlines Sasquatch" as the airline's mascot. As of November 2013 SeaPort Airlines received $13,879,930 in annual Federal subsidies for Essential Air Services that they provided to rural airports in the U.S. On February 5, 2016, the airline announced it had filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy after being forced to reduce its route network. Normal day-to-day operations were set to continue during the company reorganization. The company filed a plan to emerge from Chapter 11 on July 12, 2016. However, on September 20, 2016, the company went out of business after its Chapter 11 bankruptcy was converted to a Chapter 7 liquidation.
SeaPort's Pacific Northwest Service at its Portland International Airport hub was historically targeted at commuters between Seattle and Portland wishing to avoid congestion at the larger Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and the main commercial terminal at Portland International Airport. In late 2011, SeaPort began to reinvent its business model and the carrier ended its namesake route between Seattle and Portland on January 27, 2012. As part of this business shift, on January 15, 2012 SeaPort Airlines began nonstop flights between Portland International Airport and North Bend/Coos Bay utilizing Cessna 208 Caravan single turboprop engine aircraft. On October 21, 2008, SeaPort Airlines was awarded a two-year government grant to provide commercial service from Portland to Eastern Oregon Regional Airport in Pendleton beginning December 1, 2008, replacing subsidized service by Horizon Air. On March 20, 2016, SeaPort Airlines ceased service to North Bend/Coos Bay, and PenAir began service on March 21.
Mid-South service
All of SeaPort's Mid-South service based at Memphis International Airport was federally subsidized under the Essential Air Service. On March 12, 2010, SeaPort won a two-year Essential Air Service contract to provide three daily flights Sunday through Friday between Salina, Kansas and Kansas City International Airport. As part of this growth SeaPort secured Department of Transportation approval to add daily flights between Kansas City International Airport and Harrison, Arkansas. In July 2011, SeaPort began service to Dallas Love Field from El Dorado and Hot Springs. In February 2013, SeaPort Airlines announced that its contract to provide Essential Air Service at McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport in Jackson, Tennessee, had been extended by the U.S. Department of Transportation through January 31, 2014. The carrier had been awarded a one-year contract due to the low number of passengers that used the flights operated by the previous carrier providing EAS, which had put Jackson’s continued eligibility for subsidized air service at risk. Following the 2014 phaseout of the Wright Amendment and the opening of a new terminal at Dallas Love Field, SeaPort had to share a single gate with Virgin America and lost its access to a permanent ticket counter; the resulting inconvenience and flight delays prompted SeaPort to transfer the Texas–Arkansas flights from Love Field to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston in September 2015. On January 16, 2016, SeaPort ceased service to Salina, Great Bend, and Kansas City, citing a nationwide shortage of regional airline pilots.
Southwest service
On May 1, 2013, the airline began service connecting Imperial/El Centro to San Diego and Burbank. The EAS contract was awarded to SeaPort in January 2013, replacing incumbent carrier SkyWest Airlines, which linked Imperial to Los Angeles. In July, 2014, SeaPort Airlines announced it would begin nonstop service between Burbank and San Diego on October 1, with four weekday flights each way, and reduced service on weekends. Later the airline added service to Sacramento and Visalia as well as its first international destination, San Felipe in Mexico. SeaPort ceased all operations in California and Mexico on January 15, 2016.
