Updated: December 20, 2019
Portland jetport looking at another record year for passenger traffic
File / Portland International Jetport
Breeze Airways low-fare airline is introducing service at Portland International Jetport this spring.
With the holiday travel season in full swing, the head of the Portland International Jetport said he expects to close out 2019 as another record year in passenger volume.
"My goal for 2019 was to hold the gains of 2018, and it appears we will achieve that," airport director Paul Bradbury told Mainebiz.
Based on his December projections, the airport expects to report a 1.8% increase in passenger traffic this year to 2.17 million passengers. That compares with 2.13 million passengers in 2018.
While the momentum has slowed from last year's 14.5% jump, Bradbury said he's happy with the overall preliminary numbers. But he noted that December data won’t be available until the second week of January.
Several individual months have also seen record high passenger numbers, though Bradbury said summer bookings were affected by the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
Asked what's driving the overall growth trend, Bradbury said that "Maine and the region are very popular right now" for travel and leisure, and that the growing number of westbound destinations from the jetport is one reflection of that.
"I'm as amazed as anyone that a metropolitan statistical area of just over half a million people can generate the kind of exceptional air transportation that we have," he said. "The reason we're doing so well is the region's doing well."
2019 bookings at a glance
Below is the breakdown for month-on-month passenger traffic in 2019, including Bradbury's December projections, along with percent changes from last year.
2020 optimism
Based on advanced bookings so far for 2020, Bradbury sees the passenger growth trend continuing.
"Capacity is down for us in December in January, but then it turns a corner in February," he said. "What's really interesting is that we come to a big gain in April of 2020 ... so parking could be tight."
Already, outbound capacity is up by 18,983 seats over the next six months, or up 3.4% year-on-year.
The jetport has a lot on its plate for the next couple of years in terms of capital improvement projects.
Top of the to-do list are setting up federal inspection services for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol to allow for international charter flights to tropical destinations, and the building of passenger boarding bridges for gates 11, 12 and 13.
Photo / Courtesy Portland International Jetport
Airport director Paul Bradbury predicts a busy 2020, particularly April.
Bradbury says he hopes to have the passenger bridges ordered and installed in 2020, and the federal inspection services ready by the start of the second quarter of 2021.
The estimated cost for the passenger bridges is under $2 million, and $9.7 million for federal inspection services.
The city of Portland recently sold $58 million in airport bonds to help the jetport shave its debt burden to free up cash for projects, as reported by Mainebiz last month. The issue was 5.7 times oversubscribed.
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