A month and a half ago, on Dec. 13, 2004, the new owner of Maine Atlantic Aviation, Roland Lussier, called his chief pilot, Kevin Waters, into his office and announced that the company had surrendered its air carrier certificate and cancelled all further island flight service. Then Lussier abruptly fired Waters, citing the mounting financial losses to the airline for maintaining an uneconomic air service to the islands.
In a sense you could view this situation as a classic confrontation between a no-nonsense businessman with an understandable need to make his enterprise profitable and the extended community of island customers who view the air service as a critical service that helps sustain a way of life. But peeling back the layers of the story reveals an even more complex set of inter-dependencies and relationships that were jeopardized by Maine Atlantic Aviation’s air service cancellation.
The Knox County Airport annually receives $1 million for airport projects, providing it has a minimum of 10,000 “enplanements” (federalese for passengers) per year. Island air service provides on average of 6,700 enplanements per year, meaning no more FAA funds for Knox County Airport. Thus the Knox County Commissioners who oversee airport services viewed the cancellation with alarm.
The Rockland-Thomaston Area Chamber of Commerce, whose role is to improve business conditions in the region, recognizes that consistent air service is vital to the developing economy of the region. The Chamber was deeply concerned about the area slipping into its earlier image as an economic backwater, especially if vitally needed airport improvements were no longer possible.
The U.S. Postal Service also had a contract with Maine Atlantic Aviation up for renewal at the end of the year. The new Rockland Postmaster, Larry Hoodack, who had never been to a Maine island in his life, promptly boarded the monthly state ferry to Matinicus to deliver the mail himself and get a first hand view of the situation. When Hoodack later determined that it violated no postal service regulation to cooperate with veteran Matinicus lobsterman and pilot Vance Bunker to use Bunker’s private plane to deliver the mail without charging a fee, it was hard to know who was more blown away, the Postal Service or the residents of Matinicus.
Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, who help oversee these federal agencies, mobilized their staffs as they became increasingly alarmed at the loss of community infrastructure for regular postal service, food and business deliveries and emergency evacuations — not only on the three Penobscot bay islands, but also service to Stonington, Islesboro, Swan’s Island and Criehaven where island air service is important.
The town managers and selectmen on Vinalhaven and North Haven were swamped with complaints from islanders about delays in sending and receiving Christmas mail. Lobster dealers on Vinalhaven that had developed lucrative year-end air shipping deals suddenly faced the prospect of reinventing their business models to cope with the overnight disappearance of air service. In this sense the air service debacle was another illustration that on islands, everything is connected to everything else.
Needless to say when the news of the cancellation of service hit, islanders on the three most directly affected communities of Matinicus, North Haven and Vinalhaven were stunned. And mad. The Island Institute and the Rockland-Thomaston Area Chamber of Commerce volunteered to organize a pre-Christmas meeting to try to sort the mess out and everyone — senators, legislators, federal, state and local authorities — sent representatives to listen to Kevin Waters present his business plan and for Lussier to explain how he intended to proceed.
At the meeting on Dec. 22, it became apparent that air service has developed in a patchwork, make-do fashion from island to island, and that although each island’s circumstances are different, the island’s air fates are all deeply entwined. Vance and S.T. Bunker and Harry Ross of Matinicus explained that their airstrip is privately owned and that the owner was so upset that she would no longer allow Maine Atlantic Aviation to land there. North Haven town manager Bump Hadley explained that there are two private airstrips there. One is not available during the summer and the other is too short for required landings and take-offs. The Vinalhaven Town Manager, Marjorie Stratton, explained that the town owns its airstrip, but Vinalhaven was cautious because the town has an existing legally binding contract through the spring of 2005 with Telford Aviation, the previous owner, and was uncertain about negotiating with a new provider.
Kevin Waters, who for the past 10 years has literally been the face of air service to countless island families in difficult or critical situations, presented a new business plan for Penobscot Island Air to the assembled islanders and others at the meeting. Then Roland Lussier who had decided to resume flight operations on a limited basis also spoke of his desire to resume Maine Atlantic Aviation’s flight service for 90 days.
It became clear that once crossed, many if not most islanders would never again trust the new owner of Maine Atlantic Aviation. In Matinicus fashion, there were vague suggestions that Maine Atlantic could still land a plane on the island, but it would never take off again. North Haven has begun to confront the fact that its difficulties with access to its two existing airstrips has now spilled over, threatening service throughout the island region. Vinalhaven has begun to realize that requiring the air service provider to lease the municipal strip for $4,000 and then pay for maintaining it may need to be reconsidered.
But at the end of the day, it became clear that the islands’ air service provider would be determined by who won the contract for delivering the mail to the Star Route communities of Matinicus, Vinalhaven and North Haven. In early January, that contract was awarded to Kevin Waters and his new Penobscot Island Air. It’s not only what goes `round comes `round, but that we have all been reminded once again that islanders’ fates are deeply intertwined.
Philip Conkling is president of the Island Institute.