Portland International Jetport | PWM

Portlander said:
Keeping with Portland tradition I'd love to see an Amato's. :)
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Personally, I'd rather see another breakfast option and another sit-down option (especially one offering breakfast) instead of another grab-n-go option like Amato's. On any given day, roughly 40% of scheduled flights departing the Jetport are prior to 11am. However, the only breakfast options are Starbuck (good coffee, terrible food, long line), Great American Bagel (usually only one person working, so it takes even longer than Starbucks, and the food is meh) and Burger King (greasy and also meh breakfast).
 
I think one thing that works against the Jetport having a decent food selection, other than breakfast, is that it's strictly an endpoint. As Paul said in the linked article, arrivers head straight to baggage claim and the exit, and outside of the early morning, I'd guess that most departing passengers take the time to grab something before getting to the airport and having to pay the "captive audience" prices. So it's a limited market after the morning rush.
 
I would like to see Allagash brewing open up , Lukes Lobster, Ottos would be nice for a pizza option. Dunkin
 
The issue with the early morning push is that nothing opens until 5 AM which makes it difficult for passengers on those pre 6 AM departures to take advantage of food offerings. And who has the dedicated time for a sit down breakfast? Getting up at 3 AM in order to get to the airport by 4AM to get through security by 4:30 AM for a 5:15 flight that begins boarding 30 minutes prior makes breakfast irrelevant. I gulp down some orange juice (not a coffee drinker) and grab a breakfast bar and a banana as I head out the door for those "still dark out" departures! :)
 
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^ Reminds me of the Friendly Toast on Fore Street and would be a great addition to PWM and would give Dr. StrangeHat a place to sit down and relax prior to the flight. (y)
 
Lol so glad I don’t have to fly out of BTV as my #1 option. Skinny pancake is their only option for food and it’s almost never open. We are so lucky with PWM
 
^ They do open at 4:30 AM which helps accommodate passengers on the early morning departures and BTV will be adding more options once their concourse renovations are completed.
 
Hopefully this can get resolved and built. This is the first reading. 
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It is a first step to the expansion of the garage. Construction cannot begin until the parking spaces where it will be built are located to another site. Welcome to archBoston forums Island Frye! (y)
 
Currently (as of Wednesday) the garage is full and they’re sending people to the pink and employee lots!
I get that there are crazies who are too bored to focus on anything but delaying progress at the Jetport, but this surface lot expansion needs to happen to be able to build the future garage. At this point, the Jetport has a reputation of “it’s tough to find parking there” and that’s not good for business. Like Portlander said, you can’t take away 200+ existing spots to construct the garage without building 200+ new spots to make up for the lost space during construction.
 
I'm mildly amused that the story about the food offerings at the Jetport just made it to the printed edition today.
 
Great news on the continued passenger/enplanement growth!
While there have been some setbacks with Frontier and Avelo service being halted I've been impressed how some of the other routes have done well and and have continued past the summer peaks such as:
- DFW- Looks to be a winner for east-west connections.
- Houston IAH- I thought this was ending in August. Not sure load factors but hope it comes back next year.
- Nashville BNA- Load factors must be good continuing as daily service and is on the schedule to return.
- DEN- Keep hoping this will go year round, but time will tell trying to beef up the east-west connections.
- MCO- Looking like Jetblue and Breeze can absorb the hole left by Frontier with casually Southwest trying a few weekends.
- MSP- Delta and Sun Country are upping the duration longer into fall. Surprised Sun Country is staying with this route. Guess it does okay?
- DTW- Would love to see Delta continue with their mainline equipment after phasing out the 717, as DTW is a good airport to connect thru and better than a CRJ.
- FLL- Anyone??
- Breeze seems to have maxed out their PWM routes for now focusing on other stations and saturating New England with service.

As for food/beverage selections, I'm glad to see the the concessionaires contract coming up. Agree that with Portland's food scene and options a move in line with other airports to more local brands is good. I do like the Starbucks option and would like that to continue. HMS Host no longer has the monopoly on Starbucks and business travelers and tourists like it for consistency and seems to do really well. It would be nice to have a Starbucks, Aroma Joes or Dunkin option at baggage claim like other airports, but I don't think PWM has the current real estate. I like having Shipyard, Gritty's, Sea Dog or similar as a brewpub option over others like Sam Adams or national chain. I'm even okay with Linda Bean's since it caters to lobster and screams Maine, but would like a fresh local option like Lukes, or Highroller.
Burger King and Great American Bagel are ripe for replacement. Holy Donut could be a great addition for Great American Bagel for early morning flights, but not sure of logisitics of timing of food deliveries. Maybe a shared Holy Donut/Aroma Joes space as another option? Seems most early morning flights depart on time and people don't hang out for those so I think breakfast grab and go works better than full service. I agree, I like the idea of Amato's or something like D'Angelo's as a quicker option rather than Burger King or national chain. I might catch some slack for mentioning D'Angelo's. I'm just thinking of utilizing the current food/beverage space as I don't know if expanded space is on the table.

The higher passenger numbers from the last time the concessionaires contract was up should help open up some more options. I'd love to hear more member's thoughts on food options as some PWM folks may read this forum!
 
Agree with your thoughts and FLL, PBI or MIA will hopefully materialize in the future because Florida's southern east coast has been neglected for too long. With continued growth the jetport may see a few new additions or at least some replacements over current options as you mentioned above. I think I remember seeing a Holy Donuts vending machine in the concourse on my last flight out which is a start!
 
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Note: When all the offices are moved to the United end of the terminal (the old restaurant), this will open a big area for a food court. Which could open up the concourse area, move the bagel place to a more centralized area vs the seating area.
When the baggage claim area is reconstructed, the Shipyard Restaurant will be gone.
FIS station when built, will open some options aka Duty free shop? Flights during Dec-March to help offset slow periods
Any word on the space by United to be filled up? aka children's play area by the exit portal
 
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