Portland International Jetport | PWM

Yikes on MHT. Flew out of there once when Southwest first started flying out of there.....and that was that. I really hope that PWM gets something going to the West Coast someday...and Vegas as well.
 
MHT's success was always sort of a fluke and was entirely dependent on maintaining its monopoly as the ONLY Southwest Airlines gateway for all of Northern New England and the Boston area. Now that Southwest offers similar or superior service from PWM and especially BOS...MHT's catchment area has shrunk considerably. Basically, the MHT we see now isn't "A shell of its former self" it's the size the airport -should- be based on its natural catchment area and market size.

Anecdotally I know that before Southwest came to PWM via its merger with AirTran a lot of Maine based travelers would bypass PWM and drive to MHT to fly Southwest. Now Southwest is either the 2nd or 3rd largest carrier at PWM depending on how you measure....so why would anyone from this region fly out of MHT??

Meanwhile PWM has been able to capture a lot more travelers within its own catchment area. Even seasonal services aimed primarily at visitors still make PWM more attractive for local travelers who would otherwise likely fly out of BOS. The few time's I've flown United's route from PWM-DEN I always encounter Maine-based travelers.
 
MHT does has an impressive terminal which opened in the mid 90's and was expanded again to meet the demands for the new century but their boom began to fizzle after 2005. There are currently 14 loading bridges and the weekly departures are averaging 23 flights a day with 11 being mainline which means that one half of the terminal could be boarded up and there would still be ample gates and space to meet the needs of the flying public. The good news for Manchester is with all of that available infrastructure and a 9250' runway they are positioned well into the future for new service and only need to be in a maintenance mode financially until something positive other than Spirit and Avelo happens.

PWM is currently begging for federal grants to accomplish modest expansion plans and the last chunk of money went to rebuilding the main runway and taxiway improvements. It now needs to focus on the terminal and improving the visitor experience when arriving and departing Maine. For comparison purposes, Portland is currently averaging 42 flights a day with 26 being mainline with those numbers increasing slightly during the next 4 months. The jetport has 10 loading bridges with two more in the planning stages along with 2 additional ones for regional jets at the eastern end of the terminal.
 
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The only good news for MHT is that it's very well positioned to grow as an air freight hub as cargo services are increasingly squeezed out of BOS.

for PWM...passenger numbers have boomed.... but air freight volumes have been stagnant or declining for years and there's no indication of that changing.
 
Is it true that L.L. Bean trucks all of its shipments via UPS to Manchester instead of using FEDEx out of Portland? That would be a game changer for PWM's cargo business if L.L.Bean would show its loyalty to Maine and it would also save fuel, time and money by keeping it local. I'm guessing it's probably runway (7200') related.
 
LL Bean used to use Fedex and PWM. Fedex would not budge on reducing costs to its contract, so LL Bean went to UPS. If you look at trends on cargo, you can see the year it dropped dramatically.
 
PWMFlyer said:
The sad part is I have never seen so many people so excited about Avelo coming to MHT. Its like having a baby... they didn't even bring out the firetrucks for the spray. They better help out Spirit because they are on the way out within a year. Avelo uses used aircraft. The one they used was from Turkish airlines others are from SWA and still have the interior colors... Avelo sticks to flying into low grade airports and it looks like they scraped the bottom of the barrel on this airline. There is a reason Delta left....and will not come back..
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You take the words out of my mouth😂 I can’t believe the press and hype MHT and the people who fly out of there gave this twice a week addition to not really a tourist spot. That analogy works perfectly!! Yesterday I did a little research on Delta and their flights to and from Portland for today. Over 2000 seats offered in and out of Portland today to 5 different locations. Only 65 seats were available in total making Delta 97% full on all its flights to and from PWM.
Now THAT is something to brag about. Not a 36% full inaugural flight to Manchester. #flypwm
 
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Portlander said:
Mainline departures today: PWM 28, PVD 28, MHT 9. Granted, it is a one day snapshot but Portland and Providence being tied was surprising, total departures are 47 for PVD and 45 for PWM.
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Someone should do the same comparison on say....January 23rd. The comparison would probably look very different
 
If Breeze adds service this winter, we should see numbers increased. PWM's seasonal service schedule continues to go longer each year. May to the end of October. Then the winter/spring schedule sets in with everyone going south for warmth. This time is so underserved to Florida. If Breeze steps up, we should see MCO, TPA, JAX, SRO, RSW, and Vero.
 
PWMFlyer said:
If Breeze adds service this winter, we should see numbers increased. PWM's seasonal service schedule continues to go longer each year. May to the end of October. Then the winter/spring schedule sets in with everyone going south for warmth. This time is so underserved to Florida. If Breeze steps up, we should see MCO, TPA, JAX, SRO, RSW, and Vero.
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I think we will be pleasantly surprised with what Breeze adds for this winter! From what I’ve heard there are multiple routes in the works. Breeze really likes Portland and the flights keep filling so it’s a partnership that will keep growing.
comparing PVD and PWM with Breeze, Breeze went there first and now PVD has 16 routes compared to PWM who already has 6. So PVD got the head start but I’m willing to bet by the end of 2023, PWM will have 10!
 
Would you take a look at that! One whole flight in and Avelo has already cut MHT. Service will terminate in the fall due to low demand. That is just so classic. That huge deal they made about it, MHT bought billboards, bragged all over social media to just have the route get cut at the end of summer… good work MHT. So glad PWM does things the right way for the most part.
 
New Hampshire should just be annexed to Maine, MA and Vermont. Maine gets Carroll, Belknap, Strafford & Merrimack......MA gets Cheshire, Hillsborough & Rockingham.....Vermont gets Sullivan, Grafton & Coos.
 
NR2Portland said:
Would you take a look at that! One whole flight in and Avelo has already cut MHT. Service will terminate in the fall due to low demand. That is just so classic. That huge deal they made about it, MHT bought billboards, bragged all over social media to just have the route get cut at the end of summer… good work MHT. So glad PWM does things the right way for the most part.
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Do you have a link for it? I can't find it.
 
I've noticed that American is bringing A LOT more mainline metal into PWM. For instance, PWM-PHL is running exclusively with A319's now (Albeit with only 3 daily flights to PHL instead of the previous 4 or 5 on regional jets) and PWM-DCA is also running the majority of scheduled flights with A319's

Both of these routes used to be exclusively or almost-exclusively the domain of regional jets.

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Cosakita18 said:
I've noticed that American is bringing A LOT more mainline metal into PWM. For instance, PWM-PHL is running exclusively with A319's now (Albeit with only 3 daily flights to PHL instead of the previous 4 or 5 on regional jets) and PWM-DCA is also running the majority of scheduled flights with A319's

Both of these routes used to be exclusively or almost-exclusively the domain of regional jets.

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One downside of this is that DCA was 5x/day and is now 3x/day.
 
30 mainline departures today which may be a record for PWM. Matt, more mainline aircraft normally equates to less frequency but usually adds more seats overall.
 
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These mainline aircraft are all filling up and selling out. Next year we may see both more frequency and more mainline! Last summer it was more regional jets and more frequency, I’m looking at this like a test to see if they could fill a few mainline a day and PWM will pass the test. Next year I’d guess upwards of 38 mainline per day!
 
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