Another spring, another shutdown. The Bangor, Maine airport is going to close Monday mornings through Wednesday afternoons this spring, and customers that may have booked tickets are out of luck. So are any flights that need to divert – Bangor is a regular diversion point.
Credit: Bangor International Airport
After finishing the north-end runway rebuild last year, Bangor International Airport has moved on to the middle and south end of its 11,440-foot Runway 15/33. In fact, the Bangor airport is currently closed right now and will close most Monday to Wednesdays in 55 hour blocks through mid-June.
| Mon Apr 28 08:00 | Wed Apr 30 15:00 |
| Mon May 05 08:00 | Wed May 07 15:00 |
| Mon May 12 08:00 | Wed May 14 15:00 |
| Mon May 19 08:00 | Wed May 21 15:00 |
| Mon Jun 02 08:00 | Wed Jun 04 15:00 |
| Mon Jun 09 08:00 | Wed Jun 11 15:00 |
| Mon Jun 16 08:00 | Wed Jun 18 15:00 |
Crews stand down Memorial-Day week. After June 18th the runway re-opens at a shortened length (≈7,200 ft) for the remainder of the season; only wide-body diversions are affected.
Here are the flights that get interrupted, based on current and scheduled Bangor, Maine flights.
- American: Washington National, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Chicago O’Hare, New York LaGuardia
- Delta: New York JFK, New York LaGuardia, Atlanta (resumes May 24), Detroit (starts June 14)
- Allegiant: St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Orlando Sanford, Fort Lauderdale, Punta Gorda
- Breeze: Orlando, Tampa, Ft. Myers
- United: Newark, Chicago O’Hare
Airlines have already zeroed-out inventory on the listed closure days, but check existing reservations—United, for example, has occasionally left phantom space open during past shutdowns.
Credit: Bangor International Airport
It may seem odd to just close a commercial airport for days at a time when the runway remains functional, rather than to extend the period of time where overnight closures will occur. Bangor tried overnight closures in early 2024, discovered concrete-curing and grooving work couldn’t be finished fast enough, and pivoted to the Monday-to-Wednesday daytime model.
Closures of this sort are rare, but not unheard of.
- In 2021 the Lexington, Kentucky airport decided to close for 3 days. Customers already booked on flights had to be re-accommodated by their airlines. The Lexington, Kentucky airport is about an hour and ten minutes’ drive to Louisville and around an hour and a half to Cincinnati.
- Then in 2022 Jackson Hole, Wyoming airport closed for two months at the start of peak season, leaving the next-closest commercial air options as Idaho Falls more than an hour and a half away and Salt Lake City around a five hour drive away.
What makes this especially challenging is that Bangor’s long runway and unobstructed airspace make it the default fuel-stop or medical-diversion point for east-coast and trans-Atlantic traffic. During the 55-hour closures:
- Aircraft that can land with short runways can use Bar Harbor (BHB 5,200 ft) or Rockland (RKD 5,400 ft) if weight permits, but neither handles large volumes or late-night arrivals.
- Narrowbody diversions normally flow to Portland (PWM 7,200 ft, 100 nm south).
- Widebodies will likely head to Manchester (MHT 8,700 ft, 190 nm) or Boston.
Credit: Bangor International Airport
Once the 55-hour blocks finish, the runway reopens at reduced length while crews pave the thresholds and finish lighting work. The shortened strip is still more than enough for commercial aircraft scheduled there but not for ETOPS diversions.
One third of the cost of the work is being covered by the Maine Air National Guard, which surprised me.
Bangor International is a joint civil-military airport; the 101st Air Refueling Wing (KC-135R “MAINEiacs”) shares the field with the city flying training sorties and providing tanker alert for transatlantic traffic and NORAD’s Northeast air defense sector. Keeping an 11,440-foot strip in Class IV pavement condition is considered a readiness issue. Senator Susan Collins of Maine is vice-chair of Senate Appropriations and secured both the runway line-item and a separate $50 million universal fuel cell hangar earmark for the base last July.
The hangar is being sized for “future-generation tankers” which is code for the KC-46A Pegasus, 40 feet longer and up to 40 tons heavier than a KC-135.
(HT: Joe)
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