Portland International Jetport | PWM

I am most impressed by our beating Little Rock. They're similar to us in that they're the primary airport in the state, but it's a larger metro and a larger state. Also, it's amazing how MHT has collapsed since they stopped being Southwest's gateway to Boston.
 
Portlander said:
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Final enplanement numbers for CY23 have been released by the FAA and I've added a few screenshots for those of us who find this stuff interesting. PWM continued to remain in the top 100 busiest airports and is actually #93 when counting the airports in the 48 contiguous states which also excludes Guam and Puerto Rico. Fort Myers and Myrtle Beach were the only airports in the top 100 to show a decrease in passengers from the previous year. BOS came in at #16, BDL #56 and PVD at #79.
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You just missed #93 which is my hometown airport BZN Bozeman-Yellowstone at 1.23M emplanements. 20% the population of the Portland area but a hugely popular tourist area due to its proximity to Yellowstone and ski resorts. BZN has been under constant construction for 15 years and is currently expanding from 12 to 15 gates with plans for 20.
 
I agree Mark. Also busier than Madison, WI, Wichita, KS, Lexington, KY, Greensboro, NC, Eugene, OR and Huntsville, AL is pretty impressive!
 
PlantArch said:
You just missed #93 which is my hometown airport BZN Bozeman-Yellowstone at 1.23M emplanements. 20% the population of the Portland area but a hugely popular tourist area due to its proximity to Yellowstone and ski resorts. BZN has been under constant construction for 15 years and is currently expanding from 12 to 15 gates with plans for 20.
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Bozeman, Wilmington NC, Huntsville AL, New Haven CT, Jackson Hole WY and Asheville NC are six small airports that are experiencing tremendous growth in passenger counts. The folks in Billings (Montana's largest city) must be beside themselves wondering how Bozeman and Missoula surpassed them in enplanements during the past decade!
 
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Portlander said:
Bozeman, Wilmington NC, Huntsville AL, New Haven CT, Jackson Hole WY and Asheville NC are six small airports that are experiencing tremendous growth in passenger counts. The folks in Billings (Montana's largest city) must be beside themselves wondering how Bozeman and Missoula surpassed them in enplanements during the past decade!
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There is no wondering. I lived in Billings for 10 years. For tourists, Bozeman and Missoula are closer to the areas that tourists want to visit. Billings is the primary hub for agriculture, energy and healthcare care for the four state area around it. (MT, WY, ND, SD) Billings just completed their own terminal expansion.
 
I don't think it will have much of an impact especially seeing that MHT is 7 miles closer to PSM than PWM which also has Breeze flights to Orlando and adds Fort Myers in October. I do agree with your overkill assessment but Breeze is all over the place when it comes to what days of the week they provide service so I'm guessing the departures will be staggered between the three markets so they don't cannibalize their own product. I also feel that our draw from the Portsmouth area is fairly limited anyway with Logan being their airport of choice.
 
Even with staggered service, serving both BGR and PSM will definitely cannibalize PWM. There's significant overlap between PWM/PSM's markets stretching from Biddeford to York.

I'm worried Breeze is starting to do the "dartboard" network strategy that Frontier has used in the past....I think they're overstretching themselves in this region

What really worries me though....is that PSM has a brand new FIS facility, very lengthy runway and closer proximity to the Boston metro...if Breeze is really looking to expand transatlantic.....PSM would make more sense as a launching point than PWM
(Unless the Jetport gets serious about building an FIS facility)

This is a small but undeniable blow to PWM.
 
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Time will tell and I think Breeze is making a statement to Southwest that they are a low cost player in Northern New England with service to PWM, BGR, PSM, BVT and MHT. I also believe that they are making Portland their top priority in the region as evidenced by the amount of markets served. PSM would be perfect for transatlantic flights and PWM has been so lackadaisical with their efforts to build an FIS facility they may just lose out in the future. Build it and they will come really does work in most cases!

Bangor has similar attributes as Portsmouth for TATL flights with the exception of the very small population base it has to draw from which could make it difficult to fill the planes on a consistent basis. Would love to see the "leakage" numbers, but I don't think there are a lot of flyers driving the 132 miles from Bangor to fly out of PWM. Paul once told me that Waterville was the furthest logical outpost where people are willing to get up at 2 in the morning to make their flights.
 
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My gut feeling is that Breeze is going after B6 and their paxs. RSW, TPA, and MCO are the big draws. PSMs only airline Allegiant will fight back on this or leave. The same will go for BGR with Allegiant going head to head with Breeze. I can see they are trying to tap into the Boston B6 market, by taping and surrounding the wagons around BOS, will this work? Is the endgame to take over B6?
 
Great point and you might be onto something. Losing seasonal JetBlue at Portland is a subtraction I could live with.
 
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Screenshot 2024-07-11 at 10.49.18 AM.png

Evidence showing American Airlines prominence at PWM during a recent outbound flight. There are seven AA aircraft on the ground in this afternoon photograph and it kind of resembles their hub in Charlotte! :D
 
Portlander said:
PWM has been so lackadaisical with their efforts to build an FIS facility they may just lose out in the future.
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What's the scoop on that? Are they waiting for Sue Collins to send them a Federal present (they just got a nice one this year)? Is it just that other things like the extra gates and runway / taxiway updates have been more pressing? I know Paul's been looking at it for years and had a tentative strategy once the dust settled on the big terminal expansion, but that was over a decade ago. There is no longer a daily ferry to Yarmouth and I don't believe many of the cruise ships are making Portland their first stop after Canada, so unless CBP in Portland had significant cuts when they gave up the historic Custom House they should have staffing capacity.
 
It will be in the form of a Federal grant when it happens and there are a lot of moving parts. Construction of the mechanical/storage space on the upper level (former restaurant) so Paul and his staff can move in has been delayed at last check. Then the jetport admin offices will need to be renovated which will allow the TSA staff to relocate and free up their current space for a portion of the FIS facility. I personally think the jetport is waiting for an airline to present them with tangible TATL or Caribbean service in the future which will then help expedite the process and create a sense of urgency that has been lacking to this point. Parking, runway and taxiway improvements, two gate addition and the baggage claim expansion are the current priorities.
 
B6 has added MHT with RSW, MCO, FLL. This will be interesting to see what comes of this..
 
At one point B6's winter service was 3-4x daily PWM-JFK plus daily PWM-MCO....So this is definitely nowhere near where they used to be, but it's a very surprising step in that direction.

Let's hope Breeze responds with more MCO frequency and/or new winter routes.
 
I am surprised that not one airline is serving either FLL, MIA or PBI from Portland. Seems like a missed opportunity along the southeast coast of Florida, any ideas why?
 
Portlander said:
I am surprised that not one airline is serving either FLL, MIA or PBI from Portland. Seems like a missed opportunity along the southeast coast of Florida, any ideas why?
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It looks like this announcement is just one part of a much broader network shake-up for JetBlue. The big news obviously is that they’re adding MHT, but they’re also fully pulling out of MSP, BUR, CLT and SAT in addition to their recent recent dramatic scale-down at LAX and SFO.

My thought is that B6 is “returning to its roots” and refocusing on the East Coast, Caribbean and Latin America. They recently opened a crew base at SJU and I could easily see PWM-FLL and SJU being in the cards if this network strategy holds. JetBlue has been struggling for a while. It’s nice to see them refocusing on what originally made them successful.

This is the first time in a long time that B6 has treated Portland as a market rather than as a destination.
 
B6 is definitely retrenching to pretty themselves up for a suitor.
 
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