PORTLAND, Maine — Southwest Airlines, the country’s largest domestic airline, announced Thursday morning it would begin offering service at Portland International Jetport next April.
Paul Bradbury, the jetport’s director, told the Bangor Daily News that the arrival of Dallas-based Southwest is a bit of a coup for the jetport and a testament to “the vitality of our passenger market.”
“They are the largest domestic carrier, so they have a very large network and a wonderful following, people want to seek them out,” Bradbury said. “So if you don’t have them at your airport, that’s a hole in terms of the service you provide. This announcement fills that hole.”
Bradbury said Southwest’s arrival will offer passengers another convenient option and “will reduce leakage to Logan.”
Southwest’s arrival is a result of its May 2011 acquisition of Orlando-based AirTran Airways, which currently offers three daily flights from Portland to Baltimore. Since the merger, Southwest has been integrating the two airline systems.
On April 13, 2013, AirTran will cease its service in Portland, with Southwest picking up the service the next day.
However, Bradbury said there’s a good chance Southwest will not only replace the three AirTran flights, but expand its service in Portland.
That’s more than a hope, Bradbury said. Based on Southwest’s past integration activities, Bradbury said Southwest likes to enter a market with a “minimum number of flights to give them a market advantage” and to justify the cost of operating in a market.
He’s not sure what that “minimum number” may be in Portland, but he’s fairly confident it would be more than three.
Southwest will release complete details about its flight schedule for Portland on Monday.
Along with Portland, Southwest said it also would be swapping out the AirTran service next spring at airports in Charlotte, N.C.; Flint, Mich.; and Rochester, N.Y.
AirTran began offering service in Portland in 2007, 13 months after JetBlue began operating at the jetport, Bradbury said.
Yahoo, now I don’t have to drive to Manchester to take advantage of Soutwest’s cheap air fares.
And free check-on bags! We travel to Manchester all the time for their cheap fares, great service, and they are one of the only airlines left that still allow two free checked bags per person which saves a great deal when a family is flying!
I sure wish they’d come to Bangor!
COME TO BANGOR INTL PLEASE
They are said to be the best airline flying today. What a coup.
Awesome
Awesome
This is very good news for Maine. With both JetBlue and Southwest at Portland the route network is unbeatable. Plus, Southwest is very well known for delivering excellent customer service and reasonable flexibility with changing travel arrangements.
Unfortunately, Bangor does not have the passenger volume capability that the Portland market has and that is critical to sustaining Southwest. Besides, Portland is not that far away and you will spend less time driving to Portland for flights than you do waiting for the deleyed USAirways Express and Delta Connection regional feeder flights at Bangor. The parking garage at Porland is just about 2 hours from Bangor and that’s reasonable for the fares, reliability and destination options offered by Southwest and other carriers at Portland.
So, join the Southwest revolution and start traveling again!
Yes, the parking garage at Portland is only 2 hours from Bangor, but what about those from downeast or up north, who have to travel 2 hours (or more) to get to Bangor? That means they are 4 (or more) hours from Portland Jetport. Bangor would get more customers, if they offered more flights, better prices, etc.
It may sound harsh, but you cannot expect an airline to lose millions because you choose to live in a remote part of the country.
Heck US Air and Delta don’t even bring planes to Bangor, smaller regional airlines do in partnership. Southwest doesn’t do that, they only book passengers and fly them on their own aircraft domestically.
If there was a chance to make profits in Bangor, airlines would come!
That’s just it though- if they come, they’ll have customers. People were so excited when Allegiant came to Maine, until they realized ‘rock bottom prices’ meant getting charged for EVERYTHING from seat choice to carry-on bags. If an airline were to come (say, Southwest) that offered lower (or competitive at least) prices without adding all kinds of fees, they would get customers.
As I said, if the money was there, more airlines would be flocking to Bangor. Planes have to fly 100% + full to make money, they cannot afford any empty seats. Planes may fly fuller in the summer, but putting a full sized 737 in Bangor would not be profitable, if it were they would already be there. Southwest only flies full sized 737’s (may change with the acquisition of Airtran, they have a variety of full sized jets), but the recurring theme is that Southwest isn’t interested in flying anything but full sized jets.
The problem flying Delta into Bangor isn’t only delayed flights. It is overbooked flights and cancelled flights. Every time I have flown a cheap Delta ticket into/out of Bangor I have been stranded somewhere ( usually at my own expense for the overnight hotels). More than once I ended up on a $40 bus ride while Delta pocketed the $200-300 premium to fly into Bangor. It is so much more time efficient to travel to Portland, New Hampshire or Boston to get reliable air service at a reasonable price. This is great news. I’ve never had a problem flying Southwest!!
BIA is screwed.
I only fly Delta but I still look at this good news. More competition means lower fares!
Try it, you’ll like it.
As for AirTran, good riddance. I flew them a couple of times in and out of Chicago and it was not a good experience.
Unless the fares are unbeatable to Bangor, it’ll be Southwest to Portland for me from now on, both Jet Blue and Southwest fly out of my local airport.
Wanna get away?
Please come to Bangor – I just might be able to get “there from here” … sure can’t on Delta.
It’s about time!
I usually fly out of Bangor when it is for work because it isn’t my $$, but last time I traveled for personal reasons I flew out of Portland for half of the price of Bangor. I paid less than $50 for parking and saved $400.
BGR is a joke.
We are trying to start a PWM bus from Bangor with stops in augusta and waterville. This would help the folks in the Bangor area. Concord Coach has a bus, but it does not stop at PWM.