For years, locals have often spoken about the PDX airport costing higher than other places. So, we wanted to test out this theory and put it into practice. Often, people are quick to moan about their own surroundings whilst simultaneously believing that the grass is greener elsewhere. In fact, it seems like Portland has been doing that a lot lately!

So, we went on the website MyFlightChecker to see if there was actually any truth to this idea. We did a flight from the 17th exiting PDX and returning from JFK on the 20th. This would be an Economy flight. We also did the exact same date but changed the starting airport, from PDX to Vancouver. As seen below, there was quite a large discrepancy in price, to say the least.

The PDX fee cost over $781, whereas the Vancouver equivalent cost a mere $614. This represented a saving of $167. Whilst this isn’t the most expensive fee in the world, it’s still a big difference and shows how PDX can be pretty pricey. What’s more, we decided to play around with similar features, flying out of various west coast airports to foreign countries, and they all came in cheaper than PDX.

Based on our findings, it seems that locals can genuinely feel bereaved by their local airport! Sadly, there’s not much we can do about this and it’s one of those things in life you have to grin and bare. Having said this, it also opens up the possibility of getting the train to places like Vancouver to fly from if you can make significant savings of beyond $200. Unfortunately, this seems like a reality that many locals may face when flying out of the city.