Route change benefits BIA customers

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Sun and sand are hot commodities when snow and ice are underfoot.

And now, travel time between the frozen tundra of Maine and the home of “the world’s happiest place” – Orlando, Fla., and its Disney empire – may have become a little shorter.

In a daily flight originally routed through Pittsburgh, Pan American Airways has shifted the layover on its Bangor-Orlando route to Allentown, Pa.

“Allentown is on the eastern side of the state,” said Jeff Russell, Bangor International Airport’s marketing director. “So the flights don’t have to go so far west. It will shave time off the trip. So passengers flying out of Bangor at 6:30 a.m. will be in Orlando in time for lunch.”

To try to prove its point, the airline opened its inaugural run Saturday to 20 to 30 travel agents, and the Bangor Daily News rode along. The newspaper did not pay for the trip, which was arranged by the airline and involved travel agents from around Maine.

The jet took off from BIA at 6:35 a.m. It reached Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown just before 8 a.m. and was on the ground 45 minutes to refuel. It arrived at Orlando-Sanford International Airport at 11:10 a.m.

The jet, a Boeing 727, originally was a 179-seater, but Pan Am ripped out 30 seats in a bid to increase legroom.

The carrier was conscious of its travel agent passengers: There were flowers in the restrooms on board, and once the jet was on the ground in Orlando, Pan Am hustled the group by coach to the entrance to Walt Disney World – the No. 1 reason the travel agents care about the destination.

“Pan Am’s goal was to find smaller, underserved airports to offer service to Florida,” Russell said.

Unlike many other larger airports that derive the bulk of their ticket sales from business travelers, BIA works in quite the opposite way. “Seventy-five percent of the business at Bangor is for leisure purposes,” Russell said, “so this is really the kind of service that we need, especially when it’s affordable.”

The airline must also pursue its Florida-bound consumers with the knowledge that leisure travelers in Maine have choices.

A round-trip ticket on Pan Am Airways from BIA to Orlando-Sanford International Airport was priced Friday at $217, according to a rate check on Yahoo! Travel. A round-trip ticket on US Airways from Portland International Jetport to Orlando International Airport was $252. The lowest price was on a round-trip ticket on Southwest Airlines from Manchester, N.H., to Orlando International: $172.

Russell said the lowest ticket price might not be the cheapest in the long run.

“The flight from Manchester is like the flight from Bangor. Both leave at 6:30 a.m. If you’re leaving from Bangor, it’s a five-hour drive, so a hotel room would be in order to avoid driving all night,” Russell said. “After adding in the cost of gas and tolls to get to Manchester, you really haven’t saved $45 by flying out of Manchester instead of Bangor. You’ve lost money.”

For the time being, said Pan Am sales manager Sherry Fulton, the carrier is focused on providing Bangor customers with scheduled jet service.

“Orlando is the world’s number-one tourist destination,” said Fulton. “And it’s wonderful to be offering service to the Bangor passengers.”

Pan Am provides the only service to Orlando for BIA, and Russell said the company’s continued service will depend on response from local travelers.

“People have to use this service or it will be downsized or moved elsewhere,” Russell said.

Russell also said that while it is beneficial to depart from Bangor, the benefits of stopping in Allentown shouldn’t be overlooked.

Allentown features eight airlines making 47 departures a day, as well as relative proximity to large cities in the mid-Atlantic. The city is 50 miles from Philadelphia, and it takes 11/2 hours to reach Manhattan or Newark.

“It’s on the front porch of some of the region’s largest cities,” Russell said.

A one-industry town until the early 1980s – when steel production stopped – Allentown picked up again later in the decade as an East Coast distribution center for companies such as Coca-Cola and Kraft Foods.

Most recently the city has served as an operation center for microtechnology companies such as Lucent.

Larry Flynn, a customer service manager for the Allentown airport, said he thinks Pan Am’s stops will boost competition there. “We currently have two carriers going to Orlando, but competition in the market is always helpful,” Flynn said.

In addition to Bangor, Pan American has direct jet service to Orlando from Belleville, Ill., Gary, Ind., Portsmouth, N.H., and Worcester, Mass.

These routes are open to growth, Fulton said.

At the end of May, Worcester Airport will have trips through Orlando with a final stop in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

While no plans have been made final for additional services out of Bangor, the opportunity for service to the Maritimes may be emerging through use of Pan American’s 19-seat Jet Streams.

“We’re currently looking for destinations in Canada,” such as Saint John and Moncton in New Brunswick and Halifax, Nova Scotia, Fulton said. “Nothing is set in stone, but service to the Maritimes is a definite possibility.”