PORTLAND, Maine — The arrival of Southwest Airlines in Portland is expected to give a boost to the number of travelers using the Portland International Jetport.
Paul Bradbury, airport director, said the terminal expansion was designed with a passenger increase in mind, and he believes Southwest will mean more passengers.
The sale of Airtran to Southwest was completed in May, and Southwest announced Friday it was eliminating Airtran service from Portland and 14 other cities.
In Portland, the service is being replaced by Southwest. Bradbury told the Portland Press Herald that Southwest passengers are extremely loyal, and now they can fly from Portland instead of traveling to Boston or Manchester, N.H.
Excellent news!!
Yeah!
…pack your lunch
It is a game of semantics – the only reason Southwest is coming to Portland is because Southwest merged with AirTran. It’s like saying that Delta will increase flights to Minneapolis – because they bought Northwest.
Southwest is most noted for lower fares and good customer service and satisfaction for the most part…..in studying the “meaning” of languages or “semantics” as you say, if they bring the same to Portland then they just might make the 133 mile car car trip south worth it……
Fabulous, the power of competition. Most likely they bring new routes with them and it is always a treat not to have to pay for bringing along a piece of luggage. They have some user friendly rules as well. I think it will be great to have more choices. They have never been much of an option with that drive to NH as part of the deal.
From Maine originally but have lived in AZ for the past 3o years. I travel back there every summer and Manchester was the best bet on SW especially with direct flights from PHX in just over 4 hrs. I looked at Air Tran once to Portland since I was given a free RT due an overbooking to Atlanta once. Turned out there were 3 options from PHX to PWM and the shortest flight took 18 hours and 3 plane changes. Free or not no way since all of the connections were very tight and during peak times along the east coast. Southwest gives you plenty of options everywhere, service is always excellent, and if you want to change a flight, it’s still no big deal.
I love southwest they treated me very nice. the price was right, with direct flights. good times
Even though it’s 45 miles more from my house to Portland than it is from Bangor, I ALWAYS fly out of PWM. Bangor fares are $100+ higher, the airport looks like a bad set from a ’70’s movie, and all the low cost carriers are out of Portland.
bring it to BANGOR!!!
Southwest brings a lot to Maine. With the regionalization of air service Portland will likely be as far as they get for now. JetBlue at Portland is also superb. Both carriers really set a standard as to how to treat customers, offering great prices, flexibility in bookings and terrific customer service. PWM will take a great leap forward with the advent of SWA.
It’s about time!!!!! And yes, put in shuttle to Bangor.