Bangor International Airport has broken multiple monthly passenger records over the past year, and is rebounding faster than it expected from the pandemic.
The months from June through September each saw more passengers than the airport has seen in those months in the past six years, according to a report Airport Director Jose Saavedra presented to the Bangor City Council on Monday. The passenger numbers include people traveling into and out of Bangor.
Though the year isn’t over yet, the airport has seen a monthly average of 61,793 passengers in 2024, which puts the airport on track to exceed last year’s total passenger count of 707,828, according to the report. At the time, last year’s passenger total had set a record for the airport.
The surging passenger totals over consecutive months shows a decisive return to airline travel and suggests that more people are including Maine in their travel plans after the airport saw a slump in business during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It shows the strength of our region,” said Aimee Thibodeau, marketing and business development manager for the Bangor International Airport. “We know that our tourism and hospitality industries are strong and growing, and we’re happy to be part of that.”
So far this year, July and August have brought the highest number of passengers at 92,138 and 97,179, respectively, the report reads. The two months have typically brought the most passengers through Bangor over the past six years.
Before that, October 2023 through March 2024 also brought record passenger numbers — the highest totals for those months compared with the last six years.
The skyrocketing numbers come as somewhat of a surprise, Thibodeau said, because industry experts assured airports nationwide that passengers would be slow to return to flying after the COVID-19 pandemic ebbed.
That hasn’t been the case in Bangor, Thibodeau said.
“Once people were free to travel, we saw them start to do so almost immediately,” Thibodeau said. “Aviation travel is up nationwide and what we’re seeing is a strong return of Canadian passengers.”
Though the airport doesn’t yet have passenger totals from October 2024, Thibodeau said the numbers may continue to be high due to the addition of Breeze Airways, which began offering flights from Bangor to Orlando, Tampa and Fort Myers last month.
The airport has also tried to improve passengers’ experience, Thibodeau said, by replacing gates and jet bridges. The airport also recently added a new parking lot with more than 800 spaces to accommodate the rise in passengers. The extra lot was necessary because the airport outgrew its existing shuttle lot.
The only two months of this year that haven’t produced record-high passenger numbers are April and May — the same months the airport’s one runway was closed for construction, according to Thibodeau.
That construction will continue next year when the other half of the runway will be repaved, Thibodeau said. The $47 million two-year project is funded in part by federal grants, state and local funds, and contributions from the Maine Air National Guard.
