Portland International Jetport | PWM

Just drove by NEA, The jetport must be desperate for parking, they are utilizing the tarmac near NEA for parking.... and we are 10 years out for garage???
 
PWMFlyer said:
Just drove by NEA, The jetport must be desperate for parking, they are utilizing the tarmac near NEA for parking.... and we are 10 years out for garage???
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Yes, that is disturbing. The Portland area is going to see continued growth and it will be above projections. In 10 years the Jetport will be a congested mess if not addressed. I would bite the bullet and accept this truth and build a massive garage, something on the scale or even larger than Maine Med's new garage for employees (at least 6,000 spaces, maybe more--probably). The automobile is not going away. It's too convenient for most, and that's how we like to live--easily. I would build it over International Parkway and in a rectangular and parallel configuration and to allow traffic to flow through (with maybe two levels below ground to reduce it's height). Move ALL of the rental car lots and offices here, and that will free up more space for other uses, including the current garage. Use shuttle vans for this new rental car center to get people to and from the terminal, the way most airports do. Throw the neighbors on Cobb Avenue a bone and convert the two rental car lots next to them into a park.

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Gensler is a great hire for the project and they are very familiar with the 2012 terminal expansion because they designed it.
 
I love that Paul has his P.E. cred in whatever social media handle that was.
 
Some observations flying out of the Jetport on Sunday:
  • Breeze has advertisements up in multiple places around the terminal and arrivals area.
  • Similarly, United has advertising up inside their jetbridges (gates 1,2,3) which seem to be tailored to the Portland market. I'm sure that's fairly common elsewhere but I've never seen an airline make market-specific ads for Portland.
  • The east end of the terminal (Gates 1-4) needs capacity expansion just as much as gates 12-14... When there's a WN flight and multiple UA flights boarding at the same time that area is insufferably cramped.
  • The carpet in the older side of the terminal is really quite ugly and dated.
  • As we've talked about before, there really should be more coffee / grab-and-go food and drink options in the terminal. As usual Starbucks was swamped and even Great American Bagel was very busy.
 
A question after flying in via Gate 13 on Friday: is part of the current expansion work going to turn Gates 12-14 into regular jetways and a connecting corridor, replacing the current temporary classrooms setup?
 
Yes, and Gate 11 will be returned back to a normal gate with a new jetway. Nothing planned for the crowded Gate 1-3 area and I've been bugging Paul about replacing the carpet for a while now. At least the white tiles from Gates 3-6 classes up the concourse walkway and is an improvement over 100% carpet. PWM really needs to speed up the FIS addition and it is a "build it and they will come" situation in my opinion!
 
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They’d probably have even more money to spend if they didn’t heat that building to 95 degrees. My god it was unbearably hot in the terminal today.
 
I wonder how much it actually costs to heat the building, though. As I recall from the open house when they opened the terminal expansion (and Paul himself guided my group), the expansion included a geothermal heating plant that a certain registered Professional Engineer (specifically a mechanical engineer, IIRC) was only too happy to talk about at great length.
 
They just installed a new ?????? system on the roof last week which required a crane and Paul told the the proper name of the unit but it has slipped my mind. It has something to do with heating, cooling and air circulation so maybe that will resolve any issues moving forward.
 
I will say, arriving on Friday night answered a question I had: how do they accommodate wheelchair users getting on and off a plane when there's no jetway. (Answer: they use a long ramp instead of the stairs. No fancy elevator vehicles for Portland!)
 
From Mr Bradbury himself, it was a new "air handler" which serves the second floor of the central portion of the terminal, the old one was 44 years old! (y)
 
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Not exactly the kind of "new air handler" to get excited about at the Jetport. ;)

Hopefully the next "new air handler" has a name like Spirit or Alaska :p
 
My thoughts exactly! Which is why I dismissed the actual name of the mechanical replacement on the roof when he told me because I expected so much more when I saw the crane. I'll take Alaska but no thanks to Spirit or Allegiant.
 
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I wouldn't fly Spirit or Frontier myself unless I was really in a pinch, but more competition means more seats and lower fares for all so I wouldn't say no if they entered the Portland market :)
 
We may be close to being maxed out now with the 8 airlines that are currently serving Portland without adding more counter space, gates and another baggage carousel which I'm all for. If JetBlue was to depart I could see another airline coming in to fill the void with the infrastructure that is in place now. 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.
 
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