Portland International Airport (PDX) is the primary airport in the Portland metropolitan area. The airport, which is located 12 miles northwest of Portland, is a hub for Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air, SeaPort Airlines and United Express.

About 15 airlines fly from PDX, offering non-stop flights to dozens of cities in the United States, Canada, Japan and the Netherlands. The most popular domestic destinations include Seattle, Denver, San Francisco, Phoenix and Las Vegas. The most popular international destinations are Vancouver, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Toronto.

Several low-cost carriers fly from Portland International Airport, including Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines and Spirit Airlines. Travelers looking for cheap airfares should ensure that their flight search includes all of these airlines. But you don’t necessarily have to fly a budget airline to take advantage of inexpensive flights. Often, the full-service airlines will match airfares on the routes served by low-cost airlines. So if you’re flying to cities served by Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest and Spirit—including Chicago, San Diego, Denver, New York and Las Vegas—you should be able to find cheap flights.

When Portland residents go on vacation, they often head south to California. From San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento in the north, to San Diego and Los Angeles in the southern end of the state—California has sometime that should appeal to all travelers.

Alaska Airlines, Delta Connection and United Express fly from Portland to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Alaska also flies to John Wayne Airport (SNA), located south of Los Angeles, and Ontario International Airport (ONT), located east of the city. Alaska and JetBlue fly to Long Beach Airport (LGB), located south of the city.

Alaska, Spirit and Southwest fly to San Diego, and Alaska also flies to Santa Barbara.

In northern California, Alaska, United Airlines and Virgin America fly into San Francisco. Alaska and Southwest also fly into both San Jose and Oakland.