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V O L . X X I V N O. X X V O C T O B E R 2 9 , 2 0 1 8 22 D ay's Travel Bureau in Augusta is situated about halfway between Maine's two largest airports, Portland International Jetport and Bangor International Airport. Jeff Day's grandfather founded the agency long before air travel became the norm and sold tickets for the RMS Queen Mary ocean liner from Boston to Britain. Day says he books the greatest percentage of air travel out of Portland because of more flights, better times and sometimes "considerably better" pricing, but also gets a lot of Bangor-based busi- ness clients using their hometown airport. For those booking off-season trips out of Bangor three or four months in advance, he says there are plenty of bargains. "Sometimes you can find really good flights," he says. Both airports are on course to surpass record 2017 passenger num- bers amid a global travel surge that's prompting a wave of investment. e International Air Transport Association projects a near doubling of worldwide passengers from 2017 to 2036 amid a pickup in the global economy and lower airfares. "It's a great time to fly over- all," says Adam Twidell, CEO of PrivateFly, a global booking plat- form for on-demand private charter flights owned by Cleveland-based Directional Aviation. "We're seeing huge investments into development and research, and a consistent growth in the numbers of passengers flying." Out of Maine's 75 public-use airports and seaplane bases, the Jetport and Bangor International are the largest. e Jetport saw a 4.2% rise in passengers last year, to 1.8 million, while Bangor International surpassed half a million for the first time for a double-digit jump to 546,264 passengers. e two facilities compete with each other and with regional peers in Boston, Manchester (N.H.), Rhode Island, Burlington (Vt.) and Hartford (Conn.), with an economic impact that goes well beyond their immedi- ate surroundings — over $1 billion alone from the Jetport, which airport Director Paul Bradbury likens to a small city run as a business. Each airport is owned and operated by its respective city. Bradbury started at the Jetport 26 years ago as engineering and facilities manager and became airport director in 2008, while his Bangor counterpart, Tony Caruso, was appointed in 2012 after more than a decade as assistant director. Caruso is also an FAA- licensed private pilot. Jetport's 'connectivity' Bradbury says the Jetport is a reflection of the region's vitality, and that there's a reason that companies like IDEXX, Unum, Texas Instruments and WEX are all a stone's throw away. "What do we provide? It's con- nectivity to the world and having every major Eastern Seaboard hub connected from a small metropolitan statistical area," he says one morning in his second-floor office, stacked with oversized charts and maps and jars of the clear recycled de-icing fluid the Jetport has pioneered and produces at its Inland Technologies plant. e Washington, D.C., and New York metro areas are the Jetport's biggest markets, served by American (to LaGuardia and Reagan National), Delta (to JFK and LaGuardia), JetBlue (to JFK) and Southwest (to Baltimore-Washington). "It's not just one flight a day to one airport in New York," Bradbury emphasizes. "It's every airport mul- tiple times a day." While most carriers have been adding capacity at the Jetport, JetBlue has been cutting back, so Bradbury wasn't surprised with its switch to a seasonal service starting in January as part of a network-wide adjustment. Jetport data show that JetBlue's share of passengers departing Portland will Flight plan What's next for Maine's two largest airports B y r e n e e c o r d e S T R A N S P O R TAT I O N / I N F R A S T R U C T U R E F O C U S S O U R C E : Each airport S O U R C E : Portland International Jetport Public airport owned and operated by the city of Portland PASSENGERS SERVED: § 1,862,213 million in 2017 (up 4.2% from 2016) § 14.3% increase in 2018 through Sept. 30 PASSENGER AIRLINES: § American § Delta § United § Southwest § JetBlue § Elite § Frontier Joint civil-military public airport owned and operated by the city of Bangor PASSENGERS SERVED: § 546,264 passengers in 2017 (up 10.7% from 2016) PASSENGER AIRLINES: § Allegiant § American § Delta § United DID YOU KNOW? The "PWM" code stems from the early days, when pilots would follow beacon lights airport to airport. The last light before Portland was at Westbrook, so the facility was known as Portland-Westbrook-Municipal. DID YOU KNOW? Bangor International is the closest international airport to Europe, making it a strategic location in civil aviation, especially for transatlantic tech stops and diversions. It's also a joint-use airfield with Maine National Guard's 101st Refueling Wing. PORTLAND INTERNATIONAL JETPORT [ PWM ] PORTLAND INTERNATIONAL JETPORT TOTAL PASSENGERS 2017–18 BANGOR INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT [ BGR ] P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY P H O T O / C O U R E T S Y B A N G O R I N T E R N AT I O N A L A I R P O R T 0 50K 100K 150K 200K 250K 300K Dec. Nov. Oct. Sep. Aug. Jul. Jun. May Apr. Mar. Feb. Jan. 2017 2018 +1.5% +14.4% –2.8% +11.7% +7.8% +17.4% +21.1% +25.4% +18.6%

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