City Hall: Airport head hopeful passenger count will top '23 by 100K

Mar. 29—MANCHESTER-BOSTON Regional Airport Director Ted Kitchens says he is hopeful 2024 will top last year's passenger volume numbers by about 100,000 — and he's not BLUFfing.

Kitchens recently gave a "Bottom Line Up Front" review — what he likes to call a BLUF — of airport operations to members of the city's Special Committee on Airport Activities.

Kitchens' predictions come on the heels of Spirit Airlines' announcement that it will suspend flights to and from MHT starting in May, Breeze Airways starting twice-weekly flights to Florida and South Carolina this summer, and Sun Country Airlines offering nonstop service to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport starting Aug. 22.

Other carriers at MHT include American, United and Southwest.

Kitchens said the airlines did a "good job" during the December holidays to end "on a very strong note."

So far this year, Kitchens said, the airlines have booked their flights through October, though Southwest's numbers don't appear in the schedule yet.

"Right now, the airlines have essentially loaded the same number of seats year over year, and that is saying something, considering the pause that Spirit is about to enter into here on May 7," Kitchens said. "That means that a lot of the growth that we were seeing with Avelo and with Breeze and Sun Country is really offsetting the pause in service by Spirit. We expect, if everything holds the same, there will be about another 100,000 seats added in by Southwest when they do get around to loading November and December schedules.

"That would bring us to about 800,000 total seats for calendar year 2024, which is about 100,000 more than what we had for 2023 — that is a really good story to tell and showing that the airlines are starting to bring back capacity and that the new entrants are adding capacity into the market."

Kitchens said the airport ended last year with a very strong financial performance, and said MHT has about $4.7 million in retained earnings for the first half, about $3.2 million more than budgeted.

"We expect the expenses to continue to come in below budget due to the warm winter season," Kitchens said. "Quite honestly, we haven't had too much snow, as we all know, so we expect some savings on the environmental mitigation, as well as overtime. We do expect a stronger revenue environment, particularly in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year or the second year of this calendar year as we enter the summer travel season."

Kitchens said the introduction of Breeze Airways and Sun Country Airlines, combined service expansions by Avelo and American, is going to provide a "very strong start to FY '25 for us."

"It is my hope as always that the community steps up and supports this new capacity," Kitchens said. "Our job is to bring it. It is the community's job to support it. If we do, then we go get more. If we don't, we kind of see what happened with Spirit. You use it or you lose it. It is just that simple."

Kitchens pointed out MHT offers connections to 237 global destinations, including its 12 direct flights. Of the 237 total destinations, 161 are domestic, meaning about 70 are international, including 29 European destinations, 20 Caribbean destinations, and other destinations through Central and South America.

"It really is all one stop away," Kitchens said. "Literally the globe is one stop away from you here out of Manchester. Perception continues that people can't find low fares out of Manchester. The reality is that you can. You can't argue the math. The trick is that you have to be out in front early."

No sign of life for proposal

A proposal to remove wooden signs outside Gill Stadium and JFK Memorial Coliseum that commemorate individuals and organizations who donated trees to the area — and replace them with a single bronze plaque — remains tabled at the committee level.

The proposal — which Alderman Dan O'Neil dubbed "an awful idea" last month — was offered during a meeting of the Aldermanic Committee on Lands and Buildings by Mark Gomez, chief of Parks, Recreation & Cemetery

The wooden signs, all 122 of them, are part of a program launched more than three decades ago, when trees were planted adjacent to Gill Stadium and the JFK Coliseum.

Plantings were financially supported by donations, and large signs on tall wooden posts were placed in front of each tree with the name of the sponsor.

Gomez said while his department remains appreciative of the efforts of those who helped beautify the area around both facilities, the wooden signs have "basically been a headache from a maintenance standpoint for many, many years."

He estimates material and labor costs associated with the signs' maintenance at about $10,000 per year.

A motion to remove the item from the table at the March 19 Lands and Buildings meeting failed to receive a second, so the item remains tabled.

School assignment

City school board members last week reaffirmed next fall's plans for students and staff at Henry Wilson Elementary School once the school closes this summer.

According to Forrest Ransdell, the school district's superintendent of operations, an estimated 318 K-4 students would have attended Wilson Elementary in the fall. Plans call for sending 158 students to Beech Street Elementary and 160 students to McDonough Elementary School.

The plan splits the Wilson Street School boundary area into northern and southern zones.

The northern zone will attend McDonough Elementary School, and the southern zone attends Beech Street. The boundary line is to be Spruce Street, straight across the attendance area.

Ransdell said projections put average class sizes across all grade levels at 19.89 at Beech Street and 20.38 at McDonough.

The school assignments are part of a temporary redistricting plan to divide up Wilson students.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted in December to approve a $290 million bond to begin construction on facilities next fall. Phase I of the long-term facilities project includes closing Wilson Elementary School, building the new elementary school, transitioning Hillside and McLaughlin middle schools from grades 6-8 to grades 5-8, and renovating Parkside, Southside, McLaughlin and Hillside middle schools to house fifth-grade students.

Wilson Elementary School — named in honor of the 18th vice president of the United States, who was born in Farmington Feb. 16, 1812 — will close in the fall, and a new Beech Street Elementary will be built at the Beech Street site. The new school will be built in the same ward as the former Wilson Elementary School, and parents, students and staff will still be able to walk there.

Wilson students will be split between Beech and McDonough while the Beech Street Elementary School is being built.

Paul Feely is the City Hall reporter for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. Reach him at pfeely@unionleader.com.