DFS pulls out of Portland

Print Article E-Mail Article

DFS is pulling out of Portland International airport at the end of the month following Delta Air Lines' decision to suspend all its Japanese flights.

The retailer, which relies heavily on Japanese business, said it would cease its operations on March 31 to coincide with Delta dropping its daily Nagoya and Tokyo flights. It is a bitter blow for DFS, which only last year carried out a heavy investment programme in refurbishing and extending its 4,000sq ft (371 sqm) duty-free store at Portland. A DFS spokeswoman said: "The Portland airport authority recently announced that long haul international flights were ceasing from the end of the month. We agreed to suspend our operations at the same time. "Hopefully we will be able to renew the concession once international flights resume," she added.

Portland airport concession operations manager Walt Froman described the situation as "unfortunate."

"DFS has been a very good operator to work with. They have been here at Portland for more than 10 years and have had a very good operation," he said. "We are not going to have another duty-free operator, but are considering options as to what to do with the retail space."

In 1999, Delta discontinued its flights from Portland to the Korean capital Seoul and dropped services to the Japanese city of Fukuoka. Delta cited the advent of long-haul aircraft flying to Japan from other points in the US without stopping on the west coast, as the reason for axing its trans-Pacific services. The only international flights left at Portland will be to Canada, but retail expenditure on the cross-border routes is too low to justify a duty-free operation.