To the editor:
How disconcerting to learn that the PI to Boston route may be discontinued in July. Apparently, the Presque City Council and the Northern Maine Regional Advisory Committee believe that being able to fly people from Presque Isle to United’s Newark hub “could grow the total number of passengers”.
I cannot speak to whether there is a great unmet need of people wanting to fly to Newark; however, I can speak to the fact that I will stop flying out of Presque Isle if this happens because the current arrangement works very well for me and the proposed one would not. I do not travel weekly, but I do use the route to fly to Connecticut to visit my daughter a few times a year and for other travel. Plus, my family uses it to fly here.
Currently, I am planning to fly to Boston in April to visit my family and in June to board a flight from Boston to Iceland and in September to fly to California. I would have to find other travel arrangements in April and June if this change were in place. I cannot think of any situation when flying to Newark would have been possible or even beneficial to me in the past and, frankly, flying to Newark is a far less pleasant prospect than flying to Boston even if it would work. I have not found connecting flights lacking in Boston and I much prefer the location.
In addition, I have been very satisfied with the service that PenAir has given me. They have always given me excellent service and the one time they did need to change a flight they offered me a $100 coupon for my inconvenience. Plus, I prefer to receive service from a smaller airline that can relate somewhat to our rural environment vs. from a large corporation like United.
Finally, I will be contacting the appropriate individuals at the DOT regarding my preferences and I hope that anyone else who agrees with me will do the same.
Jean Cobb
St. Agatha
