After four years of decline, air traffic at the Portland International Jetport saw a 1.4% increase for the first six months of this year.
The Portland Press Herald reported 747,224 people flew in and out of Portland for the first half of the year, compared with 736,830 last year. Those figures give hope to officials at the airport, who saw traffic decrease nearly 8.8% between 2008-2012, a time during which the national average decrease for airport traffic was 0.8%.
Paul Bradbury, the airport’s director, told the paper that he’s happy with any modest gains, as he doesn’t expect the coming years to hold much population growth for the Portland area. “Our passenger growth will be determined by how well we can capture a greater share of the market,” Bradbury told the paper.