Airport Experience® News - Retail Innovation Issue 2024

DIRECTOR’S CHAIR

For the ultra-low-cost carriers [the higher CPE] was always a headwind. It was an impediment to our conversations with them. That changed when we got Spirit in 2021. That was our first new airline in 17 years. I think that put us back on the map when it came to the network planners – people start paying attention to us a little bit more. WARD: How far is MHT from Boston? KITCHENS: We’re the same distance as Providence (Rhode Island). We’re 50 miles away from Boston, and it’s 50 miles between Providence and Boston, but airlines treat the two markets completely different. Our population base is a little bit less but our per capita income and household incomes show we’re much wealthier than Providence. Our trade area generates a tremendous amount of demand. The trade area generated 3.6 million enplanements in 2023 with 2.1 million being residents and 1.5 million being visitors. If we were to hold on to all our demand, we would be at 7.2 million passengers. And our trade

area does not go into the Boston trade area. It skirts the northern Massachusetts border. [It encompasses] southern New Hampshire, southern Maine, and then up into the mountains of New Hampshire and over to southern part of Vermont. We’re generating tremendous amount of demand but airlines are not putting enough lift in the market for that demand to choose Manchester right now. With all the all the positive news of the new airlines coming in and JetBlue starting a service in January, we could start showing our trend line getting back to pre pandemic level. But I always like to say, the best thing that the airport has going forward is what we used to be, because there is nothing that has changed in this market for the negative. It’s not like we lost population. It’s not like we lost a major employer. It’s not like the per capita incomes tanked or unemployment has spiked – all those measurements are off-the-chart positive. We’ve got all the ingredients there to be what we used to be.

Above: Manchester-Boston Regional Airport has a vibrant and wealthy population base but struggles with leakage issues to the larger Boston Logan International Airport, located about 50 miles away.

The only thing that’s changed is the airlines perception of our market and we’re chipping away at that. WARD: I assume you don’t need to expand, and that you’re not interested in taking on more debt. That said, do you have any major infrastructure projects underway? KITCHENS: No, and it’s actually a selling point for us right now. There are all these airports that are doing these mega-billion-dollar capital development programs. And airlines, with their increasing cost structures, are looking for every penny that they can save. What we’re really leaning into is that we have infrastructure that’s already been built for those 2.25 million enplanements that

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AX NEWS SEPTEMBER 2024