91视频

No one likes a bumpy flight, especially before the plane has even left the ground.

To that end, the Port of Portland is preparing to reconstruct Taxiway C and part of the south runway at Portland International Airport. The $20 million project is slated to begin in April and finish in mid-October.

Taxiway C, built in the early 1990s, provides aircrafts access to the south runway from the terminal building. Steve Johnson, aviation media relations manager for the port, said that the taxiway has reached the end of its useful life.

A small portion of the south runway 鈥� the airport’s longest at 11,000 feet 鈥� is also being replaced after a military jet’s tire failed and damaged it. Johnson said the work will not result in any delays, but noise could reach some nearby residents as flights that would normally use the south runway are diverted to the north and crosswind runways.

The Air National Guard is paying for the south runway repairs, while the brunt of improvements to Taxiway C are being paid for by the airlines that use it 鈥� many that have seen business boom in the past year.

While the number of flights at PDX decreased 1.4 percent last year, the number of passengers increased. In 2012, PDX served approximately 14.4 million passengers 鈥� nearly as many as the airport’s all-time high of 14.6 million in 2007. Johnson said the port anticipates the number of passengers increasing to 14.7 million in 2013.

鈥淎 lot of that is due to the fact that commercial airlines are operating with higher load factors,鈥� Johnson said. 鈥淚t means that, on average, the flights are fuller than they have been in past year.鈥�

Passenger traffic also increased as a result of several new flights out of Portland, Johnson said, such as Virgin America’s service to Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Alaska Airlines’ service to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C.

Cargo traffic grew as well last year, due in part to the new presence of Asiana Cargo. Johnson said cargo capacity last year increased 2.3 percent to 219,000 tons of freight and mail. The port anticipates 2 percent more growth in 2013.

Johnson said that bodes well.

鈥淲e tend to see air cargo increase when we see improvements in the economy,鈥� he said.

The port has selected a low bidder for the reconstruction project, but it won’t be able to identify the company until port commissioners consider the choice at their Feb. 13 meeting.