For the first time, an air carrier is making commercial jet service available at the Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport.
Today, Elite Air begins Friday service to and from Portland, continuing to Islip, New York. There’ll be another Portland flight on Sundays.
Airport Manager Brad Madeira says Thursday and Sunday service to and from Newark begins at the end of the month with continued service to Vero Beach, Florida.
“Elite operates CRJ, which are Bombardier-type 50-seat and 70-seat aircraft. And, for the most part, they’re planning to use the 50-seat regional jet to fly to Portland and the 70-seat regional jet to fly to Newark,” he says.
Madeira says he thinks building renovations in 2013 and 2014 contributed to Hancock County-Bar Harbor being included in Elite’s schedule.
“I’m quite confident that, if we hadn’t done those, we would not be able to accommodate the larger regional jet aircraft. So, we didn’t know if this was going to happen. It was sort of, if you build it, maybe they will come, and in this case it worked,” he says.
Madeira says the new service gives passengers a new option to the Bar Harbor region. The new flights will be available through Labor Day.
