Maine’s snowbirds looking to fly south this winter now have a new choice for escaping to warmer climes.
Beginning on Nov. 15, the budget airline Breeze Airways will offer direct flights from Portland International Jetport to Fort Myers, Florida, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, according Zachary Sundquist, the assistant director of the jetport.
Nonstop flights to Fort Myers will be offered seasonally in the winter and spring.
“We are pleased to see Breeze continue to invest in the Portland community,” Paul Bradbury, the jetport’s director, said Wednesday in announcing the new service. “Today’s announcement means Mainers have non-stop access to our top three Florida destinations with Orlando, Tampa, and Fort Myers.”
Wednesday’s announcement expands the slate of flights Breeze Airways now offers out of Portland, including two other destinations in Florida. The airline offers nonstop flights to Orlando on Wednesdays and Saturdays, starting Sept. 21, as well as to Tampa on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Other Breeze Airways destinations include Charleston, South Carolina, on Mondays and Fridays; Pittsburgh on Mondays and Fridays; Norfolk, Virginia, on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; and Islip, New York, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Breeze Airways flights to Islip, Norfolk and Pittsburgh will be offered seasonally during the summer.
The Portland airport is the state’s busiest. It saw record traffic in 2019, when more than 2.18 million traveled through there. But that traffic took a big hit in 2020 amid the global pandemic, with passengers traveling through the jetport falling to 792,571, the lowest than at any point in the past 15 years. That rebounded to 1.97 million last year.
