SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 25, 2026--
As Amtrak prepares to debut it’s new $8 billion Airo trainsets – SeaPort Airlines is offering an alternative that cuts the travel time by over half and requires no massive public investment of funds.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260925894015/en/
“I love the train. But not if I have to get somewhere. Or by a certain time,” says SeaPort Airlines Founder and CEO Kent Craford. “SeaPort Airlines was founded to get the Pacific Northwest moving again, shortening the distance between our major cities, so you can leave home, do business elsewhere and then get home for dinner—the same day. That’s sadly become a novel concept thanks to I-5 and SeaTac, that is until SeaPort.”
SeaPort Airlines operates from Seattle’s Boeing Field and flies multiple daily frequencies to Portland and Spokane. At SeaPort Air, you only have to arrive 20 minutes before your flight, park for free, there’s no TSA to hassle with, and you are at your destination in about an hour.
Compare that to the Amtrak experience, with no on-site parking at all. Amtrak also shares track with freight lines, making a Portland-Seattle journey a minimum seven-hour roundtrip, effectively killing day trips.
“Amtrak promises the future with these trains – but it’s just the same old slow travel on freight train tracks. The shiny new Airos are combustion engines alright, burning your time for three-and a half hours to travel a mere 120 miles.”
SeaPort Airlines was founded on the principle that your time is valuable, your most precious commodity. Saving hours each way to regional destinations in the Pacific Northwest allows one to conduct a full day’s business in Portland, Seattle or Spokane and still be back home for dinner. SeaPort customers avoid the parking and TSA hassles, the hotels, and the time away from home.
“SeaPort Airlines is the future of regional travel in the Pacific Northwest – fast, efficient, comfortable, and built for business,” Craford said. “For the billions already spent and the ongoing subsidies Washington and Oregon taxpayers will fork over to operate these new trains—for all of that money—they won’t save one minute of your time.”
Craford will be riding Train 503 on Wednesday September 30 th from Seattle to Portland, will be available for conversations in the café car, and will speak to Amtrak’s costs, operating challenges, and the proposed new train boondoggle—the “Cascadia” High Speed Rail line WashDOT is spending $55,000,000 just to study.
A few points of comparison: SeaPort Airlines has required $0 in public subsidy to operate, uses existing infrastructure to launch efficient and time-saving service, and saves passengers over ½ of their time it takes to take a train, drive, or take a larger commercial aircraft through the oversubscribed SeaTac airport.
A Comparison of Amtrak's new Airo Cascade route vs. SeaPort Airlines. SeaPort saves hours of time, billions of dollars in public funds, and is more convenient in every way. SeaPort provides the only way to commute between Seattle and Portland in the same business day. Operating out of Boeing Field (BFI) means free parking, no TSA, and no crowds.
LONDON (AP) — Irish band U2 returned to school Friday to put on a surprise class in rock and roll where they formed a half century ago.
The band ripped through a seven-song set including an encore of “With or Without You” for hundreds of students in the schoolyard of Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin and a crowd of others who got word of the gig or — like a construction crew several floors up a nearby building — were lucky to be within earshot and have a bird's eye view.
“We escaped the lab — how’s the experiment going for you?” Bono said as he pointed to the science classrooms.
The band got its start at the school 50 years ago when a 14-year-old Larry Mullen posted a note on a message board reading: “Drummer seeks musicians to form band.”
Originally known as Feedback, the group consisted of singer Paul Hewson, now Bono, guitarist David Evans, known as The Edge, and Adam Clayton on bass.
The rest, as they say, is history, though it would be a couple of years before they settled on the name U2 and not until 1980 that their first album, “Boy,” dropped, featuring “I Will Follow,” the first tune they played for the enthusiastic children.
The 30-minute gig was not quite as secret as it may have seemed. A camera crew was rolling, international news media were gathered and a group of 32 students accompanied the band on stringed instruments for the hit, "One.”
It was part of a promotional push for their new album, “Carnaval De Luz,” which features a duet between Bono and Dolly Parton, who died of cancer last month.
They later performed from a balcony to a crowd of fans on popular Grafton Street in central Dublin.
Students, some sticking their heads out of classroom windows, screamed and cheered. They captured the moment on their phones and sang along to the familiar tunes. Some yelled, “I love you Bono!”
Bono thanked his captive audience but noted they had “nowhere else to go.”
As he counted down the signature start of “Vertigo,” with “uno, dos, tres, catorce” (one, two, three, 14), he quipped: “If you’re taking Spanish lessons, don’t take them from me."
In a tribute to teachers, he became philosophical about his time at the school, saying it was where the band began the “humblest and hardest lesson” of learning how much they needed to be taught.
“Part of that started here and the sense was that maybe all we needed was around us, just under our feet — if we could see it in our mates, our wider community that was going to help us get through the next 50 years," he said. "So we want to thank them — and the wider community around this rock ‘n’ roll high school.”
Melley reported from London.
Members of the crowd take photos on their phones as U2 perform an impromptu concert from a balcony in central Dublin, Ireland , Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
U2 perform an impromptu concert from a balcony in central Dublin, Ireland , Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Members of the crowd take pictures and video on their phones as they watch U2 perform an impromptu concert from a balcony in central Dublin, Ireland, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
U2 perform an impromptu concert from a balcony in central Dublin, Ireland , Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
U2 perform an impromptu concert from a balcony in central Dublin, Ireland , Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
