BIA may lose troop carrier flights
Bangor International Airport is at risk of losing the military charter flights that bring more than 100,000 troops through the airport every year.
Portsmouth International Airport has brokered "agreements" with two troop-carrying charter airlines, Tulsa, Okla.-based Omni Air and Atlanta, Ga.-based World Air, to use its airport for transit services, such as refueling, according to a report from Seacoastonline.com. Omni Air and World Air currently land at Bangor International Airport for those transit services, bringing more than 100,000 U.S. troops returning from overseas deployments through the airport, Rebecca Hupp, the airport's director, told Mainebiz. Bangor's troop greeters have for the last several years welcomed these returning soldiers, an activity that recently was made into a documentary film that was screened last week on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
However, Hupp calls Portsmouth International Airport's claims "premature."
Portsmouth was able to attract the airlines' attention by offering for free those transit services, which can cost close to a $1,000 a flight, according to the online news service. For Portsmouth, the need of those flights and their passengers is the difference between receiving $150,000 and $1 million from the Federal Aviation Administration. If the Portsmouth airport does not reach 10,000 deplanements by the end of the year, it loses $850,000 in discretionary funding, according to Seacoastonline.
Portsmouth International Airport has always been aggressive in trying to lure customers from BIA, says Hupp. A couple of years ago, it successfully enticed Miami Air, another small troop carrier, away from Bangor, she says. She acknowledges the offer of free transit services is very attractive in this economy.
BIA is in no position to offer similar terms to the airlines, Hupp says. Airports like Portsmouth and Bangor are subject to FAA rules that say airports must treat each airline the same way. Since Portsmouth has no other airlines, except the small carrier Miami Air, it can waive its fees for Omni and World without far-reaching impacts; Bangor would need to waive its fees for all the airlines if it made a similar offer. "We're not going to try and compete and match free," Hupp says.
In a letter to BIA employees dated Oct. 1 and provided to Mainebiz, Hupp wrote that the troop carriers "will be sending approximately 45 flights through [Portsmouth International Airport] to determine if it is even a viable alternate to BGR. We know that [Portsmouth] cannot offer the same level of service and value as BGR but since it is free, they are going to evaluate it."
Hupp says she is confident the carriers will not transfer their business to Portsmouth. "In the long term, we're confident that the customers will continue to use Bangor because of its superior infrastructure, equipment, capability to handle multiple operations and our experience serving these customers."
Hupp says BIA has been in talks with the two carriers. "We're still talking with them so I'm not in a position to comment on ongoing discussions, but it's premature for Pease to say that those carriers are going to be going to them."
Losing the flights to Portsmouth would be more of a morale blow than financial, Hupp says. The military transit flights are a "complementary business" at the airport and have never been part of the airport's long-term business strategy, she says. "We are not going to count on the war continuing indefinitely and count on them continuing to operate equipment that needs to stop for fuel," Hupp says. "So the flights are certainly important and have generated revenue for the airport and region, but in terms of long-term business strategy, the airport needs to sustain itself beyond military flights."
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