Portland International Jetport | PWM

Four airlines will be flying to Chicago in the near future: American-ORD (seasonal), Frontier-ORD, United-ORD and Southwest-MDW. Any ideas why there is a sudden increase in lift out of Portland?
 
1,520 seats combined to and from Florida to Portland tomorrow. 2 frontier A321NEOs and 2 Breeze A220s. (As mentioned on instagram @pwmportlandmaine). Unreal. They look to all be almost full too!
 
The numbers keep growing. Why can't they find a way to get the money to build another big garage next to the existing one? You can never have enough parking, right? Well, except for the Maine Mall, but that's a dying idea, showing up to brick and mortar to buy clothes, shoes, etc.
 
The garage is coming, but it was in the forecast for several years. The study and master plan seem to be a little off regarding passengers and long term parking. All due to post covid habits. Per Paul, the parking lot will be built first to move the cars out of the surface lot next to the garage. The garage will have to be built to newer specs regarding EVs. Once the lot is done, next will be the garage. His thought is to have everything in walking distance vs shuttles that are not good for the environment.
 
PWMFlyer said:
The garage is coming, but it was in the forecast for several years. The study and master plan seem to be a little off regarding passengers and long term parking. All due to post covid habits. Per Paul, the parking lot will be built first to move the cars out of the surface lot next to the garage. The garage will have to be built to newer specs regarding EVs. Once the lot is done, next will be the garage. His thought is to have everything in walking distance vs shuttles that are not good for the environment.
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The EV spots are in hot demand in the existing garage. Maybe also because they are 25 steps from TSA.
 
Anyone else just catch this? They came almost right over my house at low altitude, which prompted me to go check FlightRadar24 to see what's up. Guessing they came in too hot or caught a crosswind on the first pass and had to go around for a 2nd pass.

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Edit to Add: This little guy showed up on radar not long after Breeze touched down. Maybe that was the cause of the go-around?

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I was very surprised to see Frontier actually adding destinations after their recent drawback. Seems like they are trying to capitalize on Portland/Maine bringing in tourists to a leisure based destination similar to United tried to do during Covid. Perhaps trying to find summer routes until the warm weather winter destinations pick up again. I'd be skeptical, but I thought that Sun Country would not have stuck around and they keep adding frequency. But it's good to see more west-east service. I was hoping United might try seasonal weekend service from Houston, similar to what American did with DFW, which seems to work.
Does JetBlue have exclusive rights to Gate 6 @ PWM and does not allow it to be a common use gate? If so, do they think it's a barrier to entry for other carriers? I can't see them being a signatory carrier with such limited seasonal service.
Breeze going into MHT is not a positive for PWM. Even if it is minor the service will siphon some passengers near the fringe of the PWM catchment area if they are similar routes, but perhaps they are going after northern suburban Boston passengers. Not sure what air service incentives MHT might be offering with their recent additions.
And does anyone know when the recent grant awards PWM improvements might begin to get underway?
 
The only year round destination so far that PWM and MHT share through Breeze is Orlando so I don't think there will be much of an impact and the airport director feels the same way. PSM may have been a different issue if Breeze chose it over MHT due to splitting the travel time in half but hopefully they are smart enough to not have two regional airports competing for the same market share. JetBlue has preferential rights to Gate 6 but the airport has the authority to allow other airlines to utilize it as needed. Also, being a signatory carrier does not guarantee exclusive use of a jetway and those rights are handled through separate agreements.

As far as a time line, there are two separate funding mechanisms that are now in place and approved. The replacement of jetways 3,4,5,6 and 7 have been ordered but can take up to 18 months to manufacture, transport and install understanding that PWM is not the only airport needing loading bridges. The earliest we could see these arrive would be during the late fall which works well for less travelers being impacted, my guess would be after the new year. The most recent federal grant will include new jetways for gates 11, 12, and 13, an extended double wide passenger concourse which may include windows on the runway side to connect gates 12 and 13 to the terminal, and a new hold area with seating and restrooms on the west ent of the concourse. The hold area and restrooms are in the planning phase and will involve knocking out the glass and extending the concourse over the first level roof. The airport staff and architect will meet this Friday to see if the $10.4 million grant can also cover this recently added improvement and I never realized how expensive the restroom element adds to the price tag! I've been pushing Paul hard for the additional hold space area and I've asked him to name it after me if it gets approved! :)

Because the city wants to expedite the use of the $10.4M grant as soon as possible, the latter improvements may get completed prior to the replacement of the 5 aging jetways and work could start this fall. There are a lot of greedy airports that now have money in their checkbooks to spend so these things take time to materialize. Also, the completion of the painting project (new gray color scheme) in front of the terminal has been put out to bid and will hopefully be finished prior to the summer rush. The baggage claim addition and refurbishing is still on the horizon and will take up the space in between carousel number 1 and the restaurant. That is all for now.
 
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Would the extension look similar to this in size and location? Would it extend only to that existing lower level roof or beyond?
 
Is the new gray color scheme out front replacing the blue? I've always liked the blue supports for the awning; they look like ship's rigging (presumably intentionally).
 
NR2Portland said:
View attachment 48232
Would the extension look similar to this in size and location? Would it extend only to that existing lower level roof or beyond?
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It is a modest project and would only encompass the lower level roof portion which is around 3500-4000 SF. Cannot be too extensive because of limited extra funds (if any) out of the $10.4M grant and it needs to be designed so that it is not a hindrance to the much larger westward expansion down the road. Look at this as a quick and relatively easy fix to help limit congestion in an area that is already flexed during peak periods prior to the addition of two more gates. Nice rendering NR2 and as you can see only two outer walls and a roof will need to be built exterior wise.
 
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Mark, this is the gray paint project that needs to be completed for uniformity and was halted last year due to money and weather related issues. No idea about the ship's rigging theme but I do like it and the only thing missing are some stuffed moose and black bears placed above the center arches!
 
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Southwest direct service to Orlando starts March 9th?! Had no idea this was a route! No announcements until I saw the assistant directors linked in post!
 
NR2Portland said:
Southwest direct service to Orlando starts March 9th?! Had no idea this was a route! No announcements until I saw the assistant directors linked in post!
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The post NR2Portland is referring to:

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Looks like it's one flight a week at this point, Saturday at 3:45pm, and only in March. Must be testing the waters. Hopefully they quickly expand it, because we're flying Southwest to Orlando via BWI in April, and I'd love for at least one of those legs to be direct.
 
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Portlander said:
Mark, this is the gray paint project that needs to be completed for uniformity and was halted last year due to money and weather related issues. No idea about the ship's rigging theme but I do like it and the only thing missing are some stuffed moose and black bears placed above the center arches!
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I would say that the ship rigging is far more subtle than the taxidermy :) . But in general, I am disappointed that they are changing the blue to gray; I liked the accent color.
 
Looks like today (3/7) has seen a few rare Runway 36 arrivals.

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