Portland International Jetport | PWM

Cosakita18 said:
Meanwhile 77 miles away... United announced today that they're joining Delta in pulling out of MHT. Ending MHT-EWR/IAD by May. This leaves AA as the only legacy carrier in Manchester.
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United website still shows just IAD in the summer, where did you see the announcement?
 
PWMFlyer said:
United website still shows just IAD in the summer, where did you see the announcement?
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Last night United switched MHT-EWR to MHT-IAD for March and after May 21st flights weren’t showing up so it was presumed they’d be leaving. But now flights are loaded past May
 
I Stand corrected. It looks like 2-3x daily to IAD starting 5/21.

Interestingly, this leaves MHT with no service to New York City.
 
Braniff Airlines... Back when the flight attendants were more fun and everyone got a proper meal.

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Vast tracts of…. legroom. It’s a shame what deregulation did to the passenger experience.
 
It's a staged picture from a campaign. But I think my implied point is that the industry is so focused on making money now that they have essentially ruined the experience for everyone but the passengers in First Class.
 
I think it's also that, when deregulation made the industry more competitive, competing on price became the norm, which democratized air travel but the reduced income per seat had to be balanced somewhere. in fact, I just looked on WP, and Braniff itself ceased flight operations in 1982, unwilling to compete in the new environment.
 
In the regulated world, carriers didn’t have a ULCC eating their lunch by making the customers hypersensitive to price. Conversely, large swathes of the public could not afford to fly for anything other than a special occasion.
 
Keep in mind also that in a regulated environment, the only way to compete at all was in the passenger experience. If TWA, United, Braniff and Eastern all operated the same route, and it cost the same, the only way to differentiate themselves was in the pax ex. CAB rules limiting routes and entry and controlling prices meant that airlines were limited to competing only on food, cabin crew quality, and frequency. It's also why loyalty programs came about - it was a reason for business travelers (most back then) to choose United or AA instead of TWA or Eastern - the marketing was the only reason someone would go out of their way to fly with a particular airline. Even before those airlines went out of business, you saw a change in the way they did things pretty much immediately after 1978 and the Airline Deregulation Act - before average load factors were in the 50% range. After, with the freedom to maximize capacity, gone were the onboard piano bars, and came smaller seats.

Also, the CAB fixed fares to distance - so it made sense for the airlines to serve smaller cities with nonstop service, if it meant they could be the only ones serving that market. The hub and spoke model is really a post-deregulation innovation.

Plus, all airlines were, relatively speaking, tiny back then - they just had an outsized presence in our minds, due to omnipresent marketing. In 1978, it's last profitable year, Braniff had a grand total of 92 airplanes. 77 727s, 14 DC8s, and a single 747. That's fewer than Allegiant, which in 2024 has 127 jets. Nationally, all together there were only 2030 of what we would today consider "mainline jets" flying around the US, including some 352 DC9s, which often filled similar roles as today's regional aircraft, carrying a total of 226 Billion revenue passenger seat miles. In 2023, AA alone has a fleet of 965 aircraft with an additional 556 RJs flying under the American Eagle branding for a total of 1521 planes, and flew nearly 232 billion revenue seat miles. In short, today AA alone basically represents the entire sum total of American air travel in 1978.
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Numbers for PWM showed increases of 23,168 for September and 30,087 for October. Year to date totals are 2,114,042 for 2024 compared to 1,925,246 for 2023 with a gain of 188,796 enplanements which comes out to a 9.8% improvement over last year if my math is correct. (y)
 
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Each day I am becoming more resentful towards the stroudwater neighborhood association and the nimby gang. The Jetport has bent over backwards for the past 10 years cowtowing to the demands of the empire. Sound barrier construction on 18 38, discontinuing the street that used to go to the Jetport, building a playground at the end of the street, lowering the height of the garage due to light pollution, going geothermal, solar panels, ev charging, the list goes on. And its never enough.. 20 years ago they were talking about succeeding from the city...maybe it's back on the table... how is it going to ruin the neighborhood if you can't access it anymore from the jetport? Does anyone from the neighborhood fly the Jetport or do they go to Logan? Lets talk sustainably
 
I think they are valid questions to be raised about why the Jetport is pursuing such an impactful project when there are other alternatives available. Looking through the public comments, pretty much everyone acknowledges, that the Jetport will need additional parking in the future. The focus is on exploring alternatives, not stifling the Jetport’s growth

For example, The Jetport themselves have stated numerous times that the parking garage will be expanded, And so far they haven’t been able to provide any explanation for why they can’t expedite their garage expansion and are instead choosing a significant surface parking expansion Which has a lot more environmental impact.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that the Jetport It’s owned by the City. Technically, the City is the applicant for this project. That means there’s a lot more scrutiny about how this proposal aligns with other goals and priorities the City has.
 
According to the master plan, the garage was supposed to be built in 2 phases, but due to covid, that all changed as did the flying habits of passengers. I have a feeling they would like to build phase 3 and 4 in one build; to do that, they would displace the parking in the open lot, which the new lot would handle while construction would take place. Once the garage is fully built, they could reduce the surface parking and return part to open conservation. That garage is going to cost at least $20 plus million. (Grants, Bonds, Fees) The garage would take at least 2 years for planning and construction, and the design must meet the standards of EV vehicles weight,
 
They will need to give something back to the neighbors on Cobb Ave. I would remove the two large rental car parking lots to create a park/green area for them. Build a tasteful wall with soundproofing between this and the road. Concurrently, build a massive parking garage between International Parkway and the cemetery (behind the Hilton Garden Inn). The dead people buried in the cemetery won't have an issue with it. Plan for the future and so make this garage bigger (and put two or three of the floors below ground). Surface parking lots with significant walking distance are inconvenient and weather torture for half the year. Now, all of the rental cars can be parked in this new garage thus freeing up more spaces in the existing one. An elevated walkway can be built from this new garage with rental cars (and long-term parking) to the terminal. Another method to relieve traffic congestion is to make the roadway all one way with the entrance near the turnpike ramp on Jetport Blvd. It's then all one way past the terminal and around the existing parking garage, with the only exit on Jetport Blvd. where the Elks Lodge is or once was. This would alleviate additional traffic and parking issues for the future. If the airport needs to double in size one day (50 years from now?), that is not possible or realistic. Brunswick could accept international flights (if any) and all private aviation and FBO's would be located there. Keep traffic flowing always in only one direction. The vast majority of airports do this. The Jetport is not planning well enough for the long-term future and it will come. It always does.

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Can’t take away 200 spots, when parking is already always filled up, to build the garage expansion. Like it or not, they need to add the 268 or so surface spaces to make up for the spaces lost in the parking garage expansion construction process which would follow close after the surface parking expansion.
 
Take all the Cobb Ave. houses by eminent domain....the Supreme Court will have your back!
 
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JetBlue’s decision to bring back MCO-PWM has certainly been a success. All flights I’ve seen to and from MCO have been 90%+ filled. This is for tomorrows flight from Portland to Orlando.
 
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