Seaport Defies Odds

Despite the recession, Portland-based SeaPort Airlines is continuing to add new service routes — and is now looking at offering flights to special events, beginning with next weekend’s Fresh Hop Ale Festival in Yakima. After surviving its first year in business — a recognized landmark for start-ups — Craford is considering how to best use the company’s aircraft. As an experiment, he scheduled a special round-trip flight to Yakima for its large annual beer festival. The plane will leave Portland at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3, and return at 12:10 p.m. the next day. The cost is $289 per person. Craford admits he had a selfish reason for making the Yakima trip the company’s first special-event flight. “I want to go and don’t want to drive,” Craford says. “What’s the point of owning an airline if you can’t take advantage of it every so often.”