Portland International Jetport on track for record summer as travel surges despite pandemic

This summer is well on its way to being the busiest ever at Portland International Jetport as travelers return to heaven during the height of Maine’s summer tourism season despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The number of airplane seats sold to and from Portland broke records in July and August, according to the Jetport authorities. Almost 292,000 spots were available for purchase this month and about 300,000 are available for August, slightly above the record for this month from 2018.

“This is brilliant news – we’re excited about … Maine recreation and recreational traffic to the state,” said Airport Director Paul Bradbury.

Just because the seats are available doesn’t mean they’ll all be sold, but the huge increase in capacity suggests strong demand for leisure travel. The recently added airlines to and from Portland and the state’s continued attractiveness to tourists may have contributed to the increased availability.

Nor does it mean that more planes are coming. Larger jets mean there will be about 220 fewer flights in August than in the same month of 2018 and 1,500 fewer than in 1997, when the jetport hit a record number of flights, Bradbury said.

The surge in air traffic over Maine’s largest airport is an astounding reversal from just a few months ago, when passenger traffic was half what it was in 2019, before the pandemic brought routine air traffic to a standstill.

Passenger traffic initially slowly recovered from the effects of the pandemic, but has since recovered as the number of cases declined in Maine and elsewhere.

Only 5,460 passengers traveled through Portland in May 2020, in the early days of the first wave of coronavirus. The busiest month for air travel for the state last year was August, when 80,600 passengers crossed Portland, just a third of the number in the same month last year.

Belgrade Lakes’ Paul David hugs his Louisiana grandchildren Claire Cotter, 11, and James Cotter, 8, after they arrived at Portland International Jetport on Wednesday. Just a few months ago, the airport’s passenger volume was half what it was in 2019, before the pandemic. Derek Davis / staff photographer

Traffic grew slowly in the first three months of 2021 and then rose as Maine’s vaccination rate rose to one of the highest in the country and the state lifted virus precautions and lifted travel restrictions for all US citizens in May. The number of airline boardings in June was the third highest since the jetport’s record.

“We’re almost back to 2019 levels on the seven-day moving average,” said Bradbury.

There have been peaks, for example on the weekend of July 4th, but overall passenger numbers are trending upwards, he said.

“The month of July was a really steep spike and started to beat the 2019 numbers,” said Bradbury.

The booming air traffic to Maine mirrors traffic on federal highways and freeways. The vast majority of tourists travel by personal vehicle to visit the state as it is a drive away from major metropolitan areas in the northeast.

Traffic on state roads last week was roughly level with the same time in 2019, up 18 percent from the previous year, according to a weekly analysis by the Maine Department of Transportation.

George Sweetman and Lois Girvan of Labelle, Fla., Will collect their bags at Portland International Jetport on Wednesday. The vast majority of tourists go to Maine. Derek Davis / staff photographer

Traffic in some tourist areas was much higher, however, including State Route 27 in Boothbay and State Route 3 on Mount Desert Island, both of which exceeded 2019 levels.

The happenings at the Jetport also correspond to the national trends. Domestic passenger numbers rebounded strongly in the spring, from less than half the pre-pandemic numbers in April to just 18 percent lower in June, according to industry group Airlines for America.

That same month, Maine was the only state in New England to pass security checkpoints almost the same number of passengers as in 2019. The state was just 6 percent below that year, compared to 45 to 22 percent below in other New England states, according to Airlines for America.

Some of the air travel to Maine is being driven by new seasonal non-stop routes to Portland that have opened in recent years from cities like Denver and Dallas-Fort Worth as Maine and its largest city have become more popular as tourist destinations.

Even more non-stop flights were added this spring as airlines rebalanced their fleets to match exhausted business travel with a booming leisure market. This spring, United Airlines added nonstop flights from six cities in the Midwest and Central Atlantic, including Milwaukee, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, as well as daily flights from Minneapolis-St. Paul from Delta.

“Our airline partners are looking at the big picture, they know this summer is all about vacation travel, (and) they are looking for markets that are best positioned in that regard,” said Bradbury. “What is happening now is that hyper-leisure makes up for the still declining business travel – it dwarfs business travel.”

Belfast’s Debora Wilson hugs her grandson Duke Williams, 5, from Atlanta after arriving at Portland International Jetport with his family on Wednesday. Some air travel to Maine is being driven by new seasonal non-stop routes from cities like Denver and Dallas-Fort Worth to Portland. Derek Davis / staff photographer

Despite the new routes, the destinations with the most available seats in June were long-term routes from the Jetport: Baltimore, New York City and Washington, DC

The surge in air traffic through Portland is unlikely to be permanent, Bradbury said. September and October are usually busy travel months during the “shoulder season”, but fewer passengers depart from the airport in late autumn and winter.

“If we leave the recreational season, we’ll be back below 2019 numbers for late fall,” Bradbury said. “I’m more likely to expect things to slow down as we rely more on business travel, especially in the first quarter (2022).”

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