With the acute interest of local, state and federal officials, Bangor International Airport is in the rare position to take control of its future in a positive way for the entire region. The trick will be to keep each level of government committed long enough to improve the airport’s future.

BIA isn’t alone in its recent losses of airlines, destinations and desirable fares. The nationwide shift of airlines from rural to urban airports, where profits are potentially highest, has been going on in some manner for 20 years, since the beginning of deregulation. And though BIA had some of its best years in the early 1990s, its current overall direction is clear: smaller planes, fewer flights, more potential passengers choosing other airports with more options and lower prices. Though part of this problem may be alleviated when more regional jets become available to the airlines, BIA’s staff cannot expect to counter this national trend on their own.

That’s why it is gratifying that Maine’s congressional delegation and the state’s Department of Transportation have expressed such strong support for helping the airport. What can they do? Plenty, although the results of their work may take a couple of years to be seen.

The congressional delegation, for instance, can hold airlines to the same standards of other businesses by prohibiting them from selling their product — seats — below cost. Airlines do this in more competitive markets to attract customers, creating market share and giving themselves more opportunities to profit. But because there are a limited number of seats, when airlines add planes to one airport they take them away from another and that other is often places like BIA.

If this were a free market, those would be the breaks. But it isn’t. Taxpayers spend billions of dollars maintaining airports to the benefit of airlines. That means airlines should have the right to fly where they want to, but taxpayers should get a say when the planes want to land. Certainly, airline seats are perishable goods and setting a price floor could jeopardize their sale at all, but when a foreign business sells products here below cost, the federal government calls it dumping and the Justice Department starts investigating. A congressional solution could easily set aside a small amount of time in the days before a flight to allow airlines to cheaply sell seats to ensure enough are sold while maintaining a general ban on below-cost sales.

The state’s role in helping the airport is equally important. Not only could it provide the subsidies needed to help close a deal with an airline, it could more importantly show airlines how planned transportation efficiencies — an east-west highway, for instance — will increase traffic to the airport. This should be part of a larger effort to demonstrate that the region is serious about economic development. Airlines, after all, look at regional growth projections just as politicians do to forecast where a city is heading. If they see low or no growth, what are they to conclude but that their interests might be better served elsewhere? If, however, they see local and state officials with substantial investments planned, if they see a region determined to do what is necessary to prosper, their attitude is likely to be entirely different.

Bangor had the luxury of large jets and reasonably priced flights for many years. Though the local business community may have grown accustomed to that level of service, it will be a long time before it returns. The best news locally is that four businesses — Eastern Maine Healthcare, Lemforder Corp., the University of Maine and Jackson Laboratory — are laying plans to use their collective $10 million worth of annual air travel to negotiate better service with an airline. Similar negotiations elsewhere have been successful, but at least as important is that the plan is evidence these leaders are taking an aggressive approach to improving service.

Airline reductions are as much a sign of economic conditions as a result of deregulation. There are important roles for all levels of government in helping BIA thrive, but, ultimately, it is the strength of the local economy that will decide whether the airport is busy with activity or a quiet symbol of what Bangor once was.