PDX: An Airport You’ll Actually Want to Visit
Portland’s award-winning airport recently got even better.
Travelers love Portland International Airport (PDX), and while we try not to brag about it too much, we have the awards to prove it. The Washington Post recently named PDX the best airport in the U.S. A similar honor was bestowed by Travel + Leisure, which named PDX America’s Best Domestic Airport every year from 2013 to 2019 and again in 2021. In August 2024, PDX unveiled a massive renovation that “set a new high bar for airport design,” according to Fast Company magazine.
As PDX has grown, so have the ways it caters to meeting and conference attendees, making travel easier and faster with a wide array of nonstop flights. From PDX, 19 airlines serve more than 75 non-stop destinations — including Amsterdam, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. With around 240 scheduled daily arrivals and departures, it’s never been easier to get to Portland from, well, pretty much anywhere.
The airport’s spacious main terminal features a mass timber roof crafted from sustainably harvested Douglas Fir — all of it sourced from landowners and Pacific Northwest tribes within a 600-mile radius of Portland, including the Nature Conservancy and the Skokomish Tribe. Multiple 120-foot-long video walls show generative digital art that evolves with the hour, the weather and even the airport’s activity level. Skylights deliver streams of natural light on the park-like concourse, where more than 70 live trees, ferns, hanging gardens, and the occasional llama welcome travelers to the lush, vibrant greenspaces of the Pacific Northwest. And yes, the iconic PDX carpet has returned!
Travelers from around the world continue to enjoy PDX’s intuitive navigation. Expanded checkpoints have streamlined security checks. More places to relax provide travelers with opportunities to reset and recharge. Throughout PDX there are unique shops, restaurants and experiences like Tender Loving Empire, Hopworks and the Hollywood Theatre, which shows locally made short films in PDX’s own miniature movie theater. All retailers follow a “street pricing” policy, meaning prices inside the airport are the same as they are in Portland itself.
Accessibility remains a key priority at PDX, with services and accessibility features for those using wheeled mobility devices available throughout the airport — including parking, ticket counters, security, baggage claim, and departure and arrival gates. (More details for those using wheeled mobility devices can be found at flypdx.com/accessibility.) PDX also offers assistance to those with vision and hearing disabilities, along with features to improve the flying experience for every traveler, including lactation rooms, a sensory room in Concourse D and more.
Recently completed renovations also make it easier to get to your true destination beyond the airport. A new rental car center and a dedicated pickup center for Lyft and Uber make traveling by car easier than ever, while Portland’s MAX Light Rail continues to take travelers directly from PDX to the Oregon Convention Center, downtown Portland and beyond.
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