Portland International Jetport | PWM

[Cosakita18]

Adding an FIS facility might get Air Canada to return with some seasonal flights to either Montreal, Halifax or Toronto which would make the international in our name relevant again.

Don't Montreal and Toronto-Pearson have US Customs preclearance facilities? In that instance international flights arriving from those airports would essentially arrive as domestic flights....no FIS required.

 

[Portlander]

Great point and I'm not sure. I thought agents were summoned from the Custom House downtown during previous years to clear flights originating from Canada or maybe that was for the occasional charter demand.

 

[markhb]

Great point and I'm not sure. I thought agents were summoned from the Custom House downtown during previous years to clear flights originating from Canada or maybe that was for the occasional charter demand.

I believe the brief period that Air Canada ran direct flights to Toronto leveraged the preclearance there. But you are also correct that, in the event of an international arrival via charter or emergency landing, Customs and Immigration are called in from downtown. (Years ago, my mother worked for the answering service that had the line for INS after-hours, and this was not a super-rare occurrence.)

 

[Portlander]

Updated plans for the expansion of Gates 11, 12 and 14. It appears that #13 will not be used due to superstitious reasoning after a vote and research showing that 50% of US airports do not use the number for their gates.

 

[Cosakita18]

I assume gates 12-14 will be reconfigured to allow 737/A320 sized aircraft to use those stands? Right now those stands are only large enough for CRJ's and E-Jets. (To my knowledge)

I also assume this is intended to be a medium-term solution until the terminal is fully extended westward?

 

[Portlander]

You are correct on all points. The widening of the apron last year was necessary to accommodate the 737/A320 aircraft but they (11,12,14) cannot handle the 757 which surprised me. However, there are a few other gates that can if we were to have a rare sighting of one at the Jetport!

 

[Cosakita18]

Will these gates be exclusive for American? If so we won't need to worry about 757's at those gates since AA sent all their 757's to the boneyard a few years ago. Seems like only DL sends 75's to PWM occasionally as equipment substitutes.

Personally, I'd like to see United move to the western side of the terminal, and have gates 1-5 be the "leisure / LowCost" side of the terminal for Breeze, Southwest, Frontier, SunCounty and JetBlue

 

[Portlander]

A sneak peek of the revised hold room expansion with the new restrooms being located at the top the diagram. As far as American utilizing the three new gates, that is still being determined at last check. It appears that Delta will continue to use the 757 for another 5 years and will slowly phase them out.

 

[PWMFlyer]

The March numbers are out
2024 145,320
2019 155,823

 

[Portlander]

But we are almost 45K ahead of last year so far which is the new all time record measuring stick.

 

[Cosakita18]

Looking ahead at some peak summer schedules, we're definitely seeing the impacts of delivery delays from Boeing and Airbus. There are some small but notable frequency reductions in July and August

• Delta PWM-ATL is only 2x daily with 737-900's and A321's Traditionally it's 3x daily in the summer
• United PWM-ORD is also only 2x daily with A319's and 737-800's. That was also 3x daily in years past (Although some of that westbound capacity is getting sent to DEN)
• United PWM-IAD is exclusively regional jets for most of the summer. Summer typically see's at least 1 daily mainline run to IAD
  
  This isn't unique to PWM. Airline's are trying to make a busy summer season work with fewer planes than expected and despite a few frequency cuts, we're still shaping up for a busy and possibly record-breaking summer.
  
  Also looking ahead, it seems PWM-DEN ends in early November. Was Paul Bradbury lying to us when he said that route was going year round ? Maybe @Portlander can find out!

 

[PWMFlyer]

The Delta ATL run has been 2x for several years. Yes it was 3x at some point, its possible DEN will be announced during the summer . It could be an issue with Boeing also.

 

[Portlander]

The 3X ATL service was also utilizing the MD-88 with 149 seats and now A321 aircraft are being used for the most part with 191 seats. Still a decrease in lift but a huge upgrade in equipment along with an additional mainline flight (737-900) to MSP. I'm more annoyed with Delta using CRJ 900's 3X to DTW over the previous 717 2X aircraft!

 

[Portlander]

Taxiway rehab project from April 22 to July 31 from 10:30 PM to 5:45 AM which will require use of the 6100' N/S runway. Additional work will continue from September 11-25 to remove Taxiway E and D.

 

[DesertMaineiac]

Any idea if Taxiway A will need to be closed during the project duration during the day too, or just with the night work?
If the runway remains open during the day and portions of the taxiway closed would they have to back taxi on the runway?

 

[Portlander]

I think the decision to rebuilt the intersection of Taxiway A and C first in Phase One will make it unnecessary to close the entire taxiway during the day. Kind of clever how this is being pieced together to still enable the airport to function effectively with the exception of the late arrivals and first few morning flights forced to use the shorter runway.

 

[markhb]

So, if they're eliminating Taxiways D and F, is the orange Phase 9 construction of a new cross-taxiway?

Other than the "vision" of extending the actual terminal in the master plan, there are no plans of actually making it happen in the near future. What PWM is doing is kind of a temporary fix by constructing a narrow elevated passenger concourse that will connect to the west end of the building and will support the two new jetways at Gates 12 & 13. My contention with this plan is that the current passenger holding area (by Linda Bean's) is already crowded during the morning push and when you add two more physical gates to the mix seating will be inadequate. My suggestion was to extend the upper portion of the concourse to match the existing lower footprint that is already in place. This would be relatively inexpensive and double the size of the seating area and would ease congestion until the entire terminal is hopefully extended to the west down the road. This photo shows the area that could be enlarged (orange ladder) by knocking out the glass and building on top of the roof of the bottom level.

.View attachment 42686

So, they're building what you suggested!

 

[Portlander]

Phase 9 will be a new cross taxiway, only one is needed in that area and it will be a little wider. They are building what I've whined about for the last 2 years and my job is to plant the seed while adding a dose of skillful influence without being too annoying. Am thankful there was just enough money left over out of the $10.4 Million grant to make the vision a reality!

 

[Cosakita18]

Phase 9 will be a new cross taxiway, only one is needed in that area and it will be a little wider. They are building what I've whined about for the last 2 years and my job is to plant the seed while adding a dose of skillful influence without being too annoying. Am thankful there was just enough money left over out of the $10.4 Million grant to make the vision a reality!

Now it's time to turn your influence towards that horrible carpet in the eastern side of the terminal!

 

[Portlander]

I'm working on it Ben and have even pointed it out to Paul on our last walk around. I'm hoping that there will be an effort in a few years to "better" integrate the older portion of the terminal with the newer to be accomplished with new flooring, carpet, seating and makeover of the ceiling between Gates 1-6. That is the new seed I'm planting beyond an FIS, baggage claim expansion and completing the painting project in front of the terminal. Also, I was shown where the FIS spaces will be located last week and it will take a huge portion of the former ticketing area on the lower level and it will be nice to finally fill in a chunk of that dead zone.