Oregon Public Broadcasting

Lufthansa will stop flying between Portland and Frankfurt.

Ethan Lindsey reports the loss of the non-stop flight is a blow to Portland business.

Overall, passenger trips from PDX are down almost 15 percent from last year.

And Lufthansa isn’t immune. Analysts say the German airline is set to announce $1 billion in cuts later this month.

One of those cuts will be the non-stop service between Portland and Frankfurt.

The flight failed to make the profits Lufthansa had expected in the past few years, says spokesman Martin Riecken.

Martin Riecken: “Portland is really a relatively small market. And with the current economic downturn coupled with this fact, the demand wasn’t there anymore.”

Riecken says the Portland route will end on September 12. It is the only U.S. route being cut – which just shows how poorly it was doing.

The end of the line isn’t good for big Portland employers Freightliner and Adidas, both of which are owned by German companies.  The flight started with great fanfare in 2003.