While air traffic is still down because of the pandemic, Maine’s busiest airport may get busier in May when United Airlines more than doubles the number of routes it flies out of Portland International Jetport.
The air carrier, which currently has four nonstop flights to and from PWM, will add six more, including to three cities in Ohio, according to a news release Thursday: Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh.
The new flights begin May 27 and will continue through Labor Day, Sept. 6. Most will be scheduled at least three days a week. In addition, United said it will expand its current weekend flights between Portland and Denver into a daily service, starting June 4.
“This is a transformational moment for the Jetport, and for the Portland market,” Airport Director Paul Bradbury said in the release. “Given the pandemic and the real shift to leisure traffic, United is focusing on providing convenient nonstop options from several key markets in the Midwest that historically would have connected through a hub.”
Bradbury recently told Mainebiz that passenger volumes were way down last year, “and well below anything I’ve experienced in over 28 years of work at the Jetport.” And despite a recent uptick, February passenger volume at PWM, 43,000 travelers, was less than a third of the volume in February 2020, before the pandemic.
Nevertheless, United and other carriers are making plans to touch down more frequently in Maine.