Jan. 23—PORTSMOUTH — AAY1625 from PSM to PGD may seem like garble, but this Allegiant Airlines flight at noon on Friday from the Portsmouth International Airport at Pease to Punta Gorda, Florida, will be remembered as the first from a newly expanded terminal.
The $19.5 million project to add 12,000 square feet to the existing 44,000-square-foot terminal not only brings the terminal up to today's standards, according to airport officials, but puts the airport in a better position to attract more commercial carriers such as Allegiant.
"This is all about the passenger experience," said Chasen Congreves, manager of airport administration for the Pease Development Authority (PDA), which oversees the airport.
"We felt that in order to continue to be a competitive airport in the New England region and continue to service the customer base, a lot had to be improved on just the customer experience," he added.
Fliers taking that first Allegiant flight out of the new terminal were checked through a new and upgraded TSA security and baggage X-ray system, and their wait in the pre-boarding area gave them a sweeping view of the airport through 19-foot glass from floor to ceiling.
There's still work to be done as the full use of a completely finished expansion project won't happen until June, according to Paul Brean, the PDA's executive director.
"We really hit a construction milestone on the 22nd," said Brean. "That's when we'll say about 70 percent of the build is complete." The remaining 30 percent of the work includes installation of an escalator and baggage handling, as well as a new concession area.
Use of the new space by passengers, opens up the old space for the rest of the work to continue. "We'll do this transition, get them into the new space, and then we'll be able to continue the project in the existing airport," said Brean.
The Portsmouth International Airport currently has a single domestic passenger carrier — Allegiant — which generally has two-a-week flights to Florida destinations in Sanford and Punta Gorda. The airport also services contracted flights by the U.S. military to get troops to and from overseas deployments.
The existing configuration — including the fact that it has only one jet bridge — has made it difficult for Pease to handle more than one flight at a time. The improvements include a new jet bridge and a separate screening area, including customs, so that a domestic Allegiant flight can arrive or leave from the airport at the same time as an international flight carrying troops.
"We have international flights that need to be completely segregated from our domestic passenger activity. We have an airport staff and an airline ground handling company that really works daily to coordinate that dance," said Brean. "It gets a lot easier on January 22nd."
The ability to handle two flights at once not only brings the airport up to a level of efficiency today, but opens the door to future opportunities, according to Brean.
"It opens up the potential for additional flights within a small timeframe. At this, as we're currently operating, we cannot support back-to-back commercial airline activities," said Brean.
Brean said he believes that post-COVID, once the travel industry starts to rebound from the pandemic, airlines will be looking at smaller, regional airports like Pease to take on their international flights.
"They have no more slots left at JFK, at Boston," said Brean, who before coming to the PDA worked for airport operations at Logan Airport. "They're going to start going to secondary airports like Stewart in New York and Portsmouth in New Hampshire. The FAA wants to see some regionalization as well."
Once the airline industry rebounds, he added, "We think we'll be positioned that — if there's a niche carrier that wants to avoid a major hub internationally — we're a viable option. We prove it every day. We have a number of airline charter international flights that come in with wide body aircraft with large amounts of people that utilize Pease currently."
Two factors were in play as Hutter Construction out of New Ipswich has proceeded with its work — limited use of the Pease runway while it was being repaved and tamped down use by commercial passengers because of the pandemic.
The runway work kept the military flights from using Pease for several weeks. Hutton, the general contractor, was able to handle most of the work itself without relying on subcontractors.
"They were able to take on a lot more work as a contractor and didn't rely so much on subcontractors, which obviously kept the schedule much more fluid that they weren't relying so much on outside help," said Brean.
One challenge of the construction itself was dealing with groundwater as the new foundation was being dug, according to project manager Michael Mates.
The presence of PFAS in the Pease groundwater, a wide-ranging factor in the Seacoast that affected drinking water, meant the water during construction had to be treated before discharge from the construction site.
"We have to take the extra strict measures to make sure that we are being safe, and we aren't compounding the problem," said Mates, who is a staff engineer for the PDA.
The $19.5 million project includes $2.8 million for design, bidding, construction administration and construction oversight, and $16.7 million for construction, furniture, fixtures and equipment, according to Maria Stowell, chief of engineering at the PDA.
She noted the project received two grants — about $3.64 million from Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA) and about $202,000 from the N.H. Bureau of Aeronautics, a division of the N.H. Department of Transportation.
For 2020, enplanements at the airport dropped off significantly from the previous year, owing to the runway reconstruction and the pandemic.
Enplanement is an FAA measure of how many people depart from an airport.
Data from Brean for 2020 show 39,771 enplanements, compared to 116,340 in 2019.
"For PSM, this sets us back to numbers similar to 2016," said Brean. "Most airports for 2020 are recognizing numbers they haven't seen since the 1970s. 2020 was a much different year than what we've seen in recent years at Portsmouth International Airport. Between the pandemic and the impact of the runway reconstruction project, it was a perfect storm."
When the industry starts to recover, he believes budget carriers such as Allegiant will benefit first.
"One thing we're certain on is between our newly reconstructed runway and the airport terminal expansion, we're ready to bounce back," he said.
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