PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Presque Isle’s Airport Advisory Committee voted 7-1 Monday to continue contracted service with United Airlines despite offers from three other carriers.
The decision came after a lengthy meeting that included a live-streamed presentation from JetBlue and an in-person address from United representatives. American Airlines and commuter company Boutique Air also submitted bids but did not make presentations.
Six years ago, Presque Isle voted to switch from PenAir to United. For about a month it had no service at all after PenAir abruptly left. Few airlines wanted to connect to a small airport in vast, rural Aroostook County where only one carrier is needed to meet the demand. The fact that three major airlines have now bid to offer services is significant, the city’s airline analyst said.
“Not many communities have the choices you have right now,” said Jack Penning of Volaire Aviation Consulting. “I worked here for 15 years. We scratched and clawed to get carriers interested in this community.”
The airport falls under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Essential Air Service, which Congress created in 1978 to ensure that smaller communities could have at least minimal airline services. After PenAir’s departure, United came on board and the facility was renamed Presque Isle International Airport. The EAS subsidy is what makes the airport attractive to airlines.
Penning summed up the bids. American Airlines would offer 12 flights a week (two on weekdays and one each on Saturday and Sunday) to and from Philadelphia. Boutique would connect to Boston’s Logan Airport with six flights a day. JetBlue would offer one flight per day to Boston. United would continue its current 12 flights a week to Newark International Airport.
Both American and United would operate 50-seat jets. JetBlue would use a 100-seat jet and Boutique would use a 9-seat turboprop plane.
Using their projected capacities and numbers of flights, JetBlue would potentially fill 73,000 seats per year; American, 61,800; United, 60,650; and Boutique, 39,312, according to data Penning showed.
The committee’s input about which carrier it favors is actually a very small part of the process, Penning said. The U.S. DOT will make the final decision on which company will serve the local airport.
The DOT considers five factors in its decision. In order of importance they are airline reliability, connections to a network of destinations, agreements with other airlines, community input and marketing.
“We know what EAS is. It ensures services to small and remote communities like ours,” Penning said. “We know that in our case, we need to continue to board 10 people a day to be eligible and our subsidy needs to be less than $1,000 a passenger. All of the bids fit this criteria.”
Committee member Bob Clark asked what would happen if a new carrier were selected and decided to leave Presque Isle before its contract ended.
The contract would simply go to rebid, Penning said.
Larry Clark, also a committee member, asked what had happened in six years to put Presque Isle in the position of having so many carriers bid to serve its airport.
The area commands the highest Emergency Airline Service subsidies in the lower 48 states, Penning said. Isolated markets do better because there is perceived to be less risk.
But the airport has also grown in those six years, he said. Work by the airport and United have revived the market and contributed to growing numbers of passengers.
City Councilor Kevin Freeman agreed, and said 12,000 boardings a year used to be significant. At last count the city logged 22,000.
Following questions and comments, city councilors and most of the public left while the advisory committee deliberated.
“We’ve got a good thing going, and I think it would be foolish to cut ties for a cut-rate, though good, airline,” said Charlie Namur, committee chair.
Member Nate Grass favored JetBlue because it has a frequent-flier donation system to help people with medical flights. Many people used to depend on flights to Boston for medical services under previous carriers, he said.
Grass cast the sole vote for JetBlue, with the seven other committee members voting for United.
