"New Hampshire airport talks with JetBlue, others"

Friday, October 29, 2004

Airport talks with JetBlue, others
By MICHAEL COUSINEAU 
The New Hampshire Union Leader 


MANCHESTER - Manchester Airport has held discussions with American, AirTran,
Spirit and JetBlue airlines over the past year trying to recruit them to
start service here, according to Airport Director Kevin Dillon. 

The airport also most likely will move ahead with building three more
terminal gates in summer 2005 unless existing airlines pull back service
because of financial distress, he said in an interview yesterday. 

"We want to be in a position where we can accommodate demand we think will
be coming to the airport - demand not only from our existing carriers but
other carriers that aren't operating here today," Dillon said. 

The three gates would be built on the Southwest Airlines side of the airport
and be finished in late 2006. The airport currently has 13 airlines and 14
gates. As previously reported, longer-range plans call for a second terminal
with six gates should passenger growth continue. 

Dillon said the airport can "very comfortably" handle 5 million passengers."
It should surpass 4 million passengers this year and hit 5 million within
the next three to four years, he said. 

All but Spirit operate at Boston's Logan International Airport. Spirit
recently announced it would start flights from Providence, R.I., Oct. 28.
Dillon said that may indicate a willingness to expand to Manchester, another
regional airport in New England. 

"We feel very optimistic we'll be right in the hunt for (JetBlue) service as
soon as they start taking delivery" of smaller jets, Dillon said. 

JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin said the airline will start receiving
smaller, 100-seat jets in August but won't start flying them until late
2005. When those jets join the fleet, "cities like Manchester will be much
more an option for JetBlue," Baldwin said. 

A Spirit spokesman said the airline meets and speaks with many airports and
many factors go into the decision of where to launch new service. 

Spokesmen for American and AirTran didn't immediately return phone messages.


Dillon cautioned that airlines sometimes take years to commit to an airport,
as Northwest did in the 1990s. 

"We have had conversations with these carriers and continue to have
conversations with them," Dillon said. "We do feel it's important if a new
carrier were to emerge at Manchester Airport that they would have their own
facilities to operate." 

Currently, the airport has no open gates.


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