New Wenatchee-Portland Passenger Flight Starts in October, Thanks to Federal Grant Cantwell Secured

04.30.26 New Wenatchee-Portland Passenger Flight Starts in October, Thanks to Federal Grant Cantwell Secured Cantwell sent letter to Transpo Sec. Duffy in Dec. 2025 requesting grant extension that made flight possible WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, celebrated yesterday’s announcement of a new daily flight between Wenatchee’s Pangborn Memorial Airport and Portland. “This new daily flight at Pangborn Memorial Airport will help connect nearly 125,000 Chelan and Douglas County residents to more than 65 nonstop destinations from Portland International Airport. Game-changing flight options like these are why we worked to secure a Small Community Air Service Development Program grant for Pangborn to attract new service. Thank you to Pangborn Memorial Airport and Alaska Airlines for their partnership in making this new connection a reality for the Apple Capital of the World,” Sen. Cantwell said. In 2018, Sen. Cantwell helped secure a $750,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Small Community Air Service Development Program (SCASDP) to help Pangborn Memorial Airport attract airlines to provide new air service for North Central Washington travelers. The COVID-19 pandemic’s significant impact to air travel delayed that effort. Since the grant was set to expire on January 9, 2026, Sen. Cantwell wrote U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy last December, urging the Department of Transportation to extend the grant so that the airport could continue discussions about new service to Portland. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the region has only been served by twice-daily service to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Once Horizon Air begins service on October 3, 2026, Pangborn will offer direct non-stop flights to both Seattle and Portland. In 2024, Sen. Cantwell joined local leaders at Pangborn Memorial Airport to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new General Aviation Terminal Building. She secured a $3,096,000 Congressionally Directed Spending award from the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Airport Improvement Program (AIP) for the rehabilitation project in FY 2024. In 2022, Sen. Cantwell secured a $10 million AIP grant to help reconstruct 7,100 feet of existing taxiway, taxiway lighting systems, and 28 airfield guidance signs to meet FAA standards. In 2023, Pangborn Memorial received $8.4 million from Cantwell-championed programs, and just in the first half of 2024, Pangborn received an additional $1.6 million . As then-chair of the Senate Commerce Committee and lead architect of the 2024 FAA reauthorization law, Sen. Cantwell secured cost relief for small and non-hub airports like Pangborn and a historic $4 billion per year to fund airport infrastructure projects nationwide under the AIP. The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 authorized historic funding to support small and rural community air service via the Small Community Air Service Development (SCASD) and Essential Air Service (EAS) programs, increasing the authorization for the SCASDP program by 50 percent to $15 million annually through FY 2028. In 2021, Sen. Cantwell also championed $25 billion for new airport infrastructure improvements in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The FAA Reauthorization Act increased funding for the AIP program from $3.35 billion per year to $4 billion per year and provided specific cost share relief under the AIP program so smaller airports with limited infrastructure resources don’t have to put up as much money up front to receive federal funding. This relief helps small and non-hub airports like Pangborn Memorial utilize every available dollar of federal funding to improve airport infrastructure and meet important aviation safety needs. Video from Sen. Cantwell’s 2024 visit to Pangborn is available HERE , audio HERE , photos HERE , and transcript of Sen. Cantwell’s remarks HERE. Print Email Tweet Previous Article