June 7, 2010

Port of Seattle Welcomes Newest Nonstop Connection as Delta Air Lines Debuts Route to Osaka

Governor Gregoire Attends Ceremonial Sake Barrel Opening

The percussion of Taiko drummers and a ceremonial sake barrel opening kicked-off The Port of Seattle and the Governor's celebration today welcoming Delta Air Lines inaugural nonstop flight to Osaka, Japan from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The new daily service is the second new route in four days inaugurated by Delta Air Lines, the world's largest airlines, to position Seattle as a major west coast gateway to Asia. Friday, Delta began five times a week service to Beijing, China. Delta Air Lines last year merged with Northwest Airlines, becoming the world's largest airline.    

"These direct flights will continue to open doors with our business partners in Asia and create new trade, tourism and investment opportunities at a time when we need them the most," Gov. Chris Gregoire said. "China and Japan are two of our top export markets. Expanding and simplifying travel between our nations will lead to greater economic growth which leads to job creation."

"In addition, these new flights reaffirm the Port of Seattle's role as an economic engine by helping to generate new jobs and opportunities for the success of our region," said Rob Holland, Port of Seattle Commissioner.

Each of Delta's new services will use Boeing 767-300 aircraft.

With the added new routes, Sea-Tac now has 19 international nonstop connections including five cities in Asia (Beijing, Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, and Taipei) and five cities in Europe (London, Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt and Reykjavik).

The new nonstop flights to Beijing and Osaka will be timed to conveniently connect with Delta and Alaska's 267 combined daily departures to 64 destinations from Sea-Tac, and will complement Delta's existing daily service to Tokyo-Narita.  Delta and Alaska offer customers reciprocal code share, lounge and frequent flyer benefits to make it easier to connect between the airlines' domestic and international networks at Seattle.

More Details on International Flights
Including Delta's announcement today, six new international services have been added at Sea-Tac since 2007: Air France (2007 to Paris), Lufthansa (2008 to Frankfurt), Hainan (2008 to Beijing) and Icelandair (2009 to Reykjavik).

A Little History         
The first one-stop international flight out of Sea-Tac was in 1949 when Northwest Airlines flew to Tokyo, stopping in Anchorage. That same flight became the first nonstop international flight by going directly to Tokyo in 1963, the longest consecutively operated international flight at Sea-Tac. Originally constructed in 1944 for use by the U.S. military, the first year of commercial flights at Sea-Tac came in 1947.