Group looks to develop airline Frenchville-N.H. flights proposed

FRENCHVILLE – The Northern Aroostook Regional Airport Authority and a number of volunteers are looking at an initiative that could bring daily flights to the Frenchville airport early next year.

The twice-a-day flights, which will use a nine-passenger, fully pressurized plane, would be nonstop to Manchester, N.H., a northeast hub for many national and international airlines.

The authority would like to start service by Jan. 13, but at the latest by the first of February.

It will be the third time the facility attempts to inaugurate daily flights. The previous two attempts were made by Roland Martin, then the NARA fixed-based operator.

Dave Ferland, NARA manager for the last 18 months, announced the plans Tuesday at a gathering of facility volunteers. About 35 municipal officials, businesspeople, volunteers and pilots were at the meeting.

“This will be an initiative to serve both sides of the border,” Ferland said. “We need a number of people to make this happen.

“We will be using a large, small airplane that allows us to serve this market where there is not a large number of passengers,” he said. “We are attempting to raise a small amount of money to subsidize the gathering of ridership.”

The “large, small airplane” to which Ferland was referring is a nine-passenger, single-propeller aircraft known as a Pilatus. The aircraft is used extensively in small, Canadian markets.

The aircraft, propelled by a 1,600-horsepower motor, has a pressurized cabin that allows it to fly at high altitudes – about 18,000 feet – at speeds of 330 mph. The flight to Manchester would take about an hour and 15 minutes.

Frank Kelner, president of the Kelner Group of Companies based in Thunder Bay, Ontario, owns the Swiss-built, $3.2 million aircraft. His group oversees nine small airlines in Canada.

“The only way this can work is to get people and communities involved,” Kelner said. “While the effort will suffer a bit during the first two or three months, there is no reason it won’t work.

“Using a small aircraft like this is the only way it will work,” he said. “It’s the only way to make money in a small market.”

Kelner’s group will furnish the aircraft and support services for the effort. He also is supplying funding for the effort.

Ferland’s group is looking to form a local entity to operate the service.

Ferland’s group, which includes the airport’s nine-person authority and several volunteers, is attempting to raise $45,000 needed to subsidize the first two or three months of operation.

They are trying to raise $15,000 with a raffle, hoping to get another $15,000 from the St. John Valley business community, and still another $15,000 from sources outside the St. John Valley to make the effort work.

The five-day-a-week service hopes to sell round-trip tickets to Manchester for $240. During the first two months, in an effort to establish a ridership, the tickets will be about half-price, according to the unofficial proposal Ferland showed.

“We are trying to introduce air service to the St. John Valley to develop economic growth,” Ferland said. “We are hopeful of developing a service that will pay for itself, not one where we will have to continually dump money into it.

“We need to get back to the days when people could fly in and out of here,” he said. “People need to fly when they have to, and twice a day, five days a week is our leap of faith.”

Kelner said the first 60 to 90 days will tell if the service will pay for itself.

The number of passengers needed to break even on the proposal is 60 to 80 people each way every week. Full capacity of the aircraft for the week would be 190 passengers.