Lebanon — Yesterday,
21-year-old Jeff Moran boarded a plane in Boston, flew to Lebanon, sat
around the municipal airport for a few hours, and flew back.
Why? Because it cost him only $24.
“I
just saw the $12 (one-way) flight deal and then decided, eh, just fly
to Lebanon, just out and back, just for the heck of it,” Moran said as
he sat near a window in the terminal, surfing the Internet on his
laptop. “Didn’t really have anything else to do, so.”
Lebanon
Municipal Airport’s sole commercial airline, Cape Air, announced last
week it would offer $12 one-way flights to and from Boston and New York
through the end of the year. The deal was meant to push the airport’s
annual outbound passenger traffic past the 10,000 benchmark. Once it
reaches that level, the airport qualifies for $1 million in federal
subsidies that will go toward facility improvements such as airfield
work, lighting, runway resurfacing and more — a significantly greater
amount than the $150,000 it would have received had any fewer fliers
flown out during 2012.
The airport needed just more than 40
outbound passengers when the deal was announced Christmas Eve, and it
hit the target around lunchtime on Sunday, said Carl Roebuck, Cape Air’s
lead gate agent in Lebanon.
“The most usual comment we got was,
‘I thought it was a computer error, I thought it was something wrong, I
had to call to find out,’” Roebuck said. “‘I couldn’t believe how cheap
the rates were; I couldn’t turn it down.’”
Moran’s background
perhaps shed light on his three-and-a-half hour layover at Lebanon’s
airport: A private pilot and self-described “relative airplane
enthusiast,” he’s studying to become an air traffic controller at the
Arizona campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and bought the
tickets while home on winter break in Concord, Mass.
“I guess
also part of the reason why I took it was, well, if it helps a small
airport get more service then, eh, fine, I’ll help,” he said, referring
to the $1 million subsidy.
He was not the only person who flew
just to fly, Roebuck said. A pair of men boarded a plane out of Lebanon
to Boston at 6:15 a.m. yesterday, and got on a return flight less than
four hours later.
“Most people are going down for the day,” he said.
The
10,000 passengers in 2012 represents the most outbound passengers the
airport has seen since 2001. Flights on Cape Air’s nine-passenger planes
have been fully booked for four days, Roebuck said, with nine flights
slated to depart Lebanon yesterday and 14 the day before — well above
the typical six.
J.D. Larosiliere, who works at the Avis car
rental facility at the Lebanon airport, took advantage of the deal to
treat himself, his wife and their three sons to a day trip in New York
on Friday. After departing Lebanon at 10 a.m., they had a full day in
the Big Apple — visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art, spending
time with Larosiliere’s father, and eating dinner at the Cheesecake
Factory — and were back in the Upper Valley by quarter to 10 that night.
“We
laughed about it — we chartered a plane,” said Larosiliere, whose
five-person family took up more than half the seats on the flight.
The
$12 deal did not extend into the new year, but passengers who wanted to
spend New Year’s Eve in New York or Boston could still find
cheaper-than-usual return flights this week, Roebuck said. For example,
return flights from New York are around $70, as opposed to the usual
$160 fare.
But some passengers, like Trevor Garvey, 22, and
Montana Keddy, 19, hadn’t even gotten that far in their planning
yesterday. The couple said they impulsively jumped on the deal when they
heard about it on a broadcast ad.
They made plans to watch the
ball drop in Times Square last night, but as far as getting home to
Concord, N.H. — “we haven’t really figured that out yet,” Garvey said.
“We figured we’re getting (to New York), and then on the way back, it’s
kind of ...”
“Spontaneous,” Keddy offered.
Prior to
hearing about the deal, they weren’t even aware that Lebanon had an
airport. Trying to find the tiny terminal yesterday, they originally
drove past it without noticing it was there.
Other passengers in
Lebanon yesterday said their plans were in the works before Cape Air
announced its deal, but the $12 tickets drew them to an airport they
said they would not have used otherwise. Middlebury, Vt. resident Caleb
Ingerson, who attends college in Florida, usually gets a connecting
flight to Boston out of Burlington, and Bristol, N.H.’s Tim Arnold, a
law student in Boston, typically takes the bus into the city or gets a
ride from family.
They both made their first trips to the Lebanon Municipal Airport yesterday.
“It’s
just easier for family, I guess, logistically, to drop us off and (my
dad) can go do his thing for the rest of the day,” said Arnold, who was
accompanied by his younger brother.
Would they have flown to Boston were it not for the $12 deal?
“Not a chance,” Tim Arnold said.
Story and Photos: http://www.vnews.com
http://flyleb.com
http://www.airnav.com/airport/KLEB
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