Any day now, Telford Air hopes to sell Maine Atlantic Aviation, its island commuter service, to a willing buyer. Telford president Bob Ziegelaar confirmed that in late February a letter of intent was being drafted for an “interested” party.
Telford’s bigger hope, however, is that someone will figure out a way to lengthen the North Haven airstrip used for summer traffic. Privately owned by the Witherspoon family, this airstrip currently runs about 200 feet short of what Telford’s insurance company requires to cover passenger service.
Without this insurance, for the past two years Maine Atlantic has been unable to operate the lucrative passenger service from Owl’s Head into North Haven during the peak summer season, and the Telford balance sheet has suffered the loss. In the off season, all 3,000 feet of a private airstrip owned by the Watson family can be used; unofficially, Maine Atlantic can then charge $42 per person on its three mail, FedEx and UPS runs.
“Technically we’re not supposed to fly passengers then – officially the Watson strip is not for commercial use – but we help the caretaker, so we can do a lot of things under the radar screen,” explains Kevin Waters, one of Maine Atlantic’s managers.
On April 15, Maine Atlantic switches over to using the much shorter Witherspoon strip. Apparently the only way to lengthen the private runway is by tearing down a stone wall and leveling 200 feet of the adjacent Meigs property – something the Meigs family of Berwyn, Pennsylvania, flatly refuses to allow.
“Two hundred feet is two-thirds of a football field,” notes Alton Hadley, town clerk on North Haven, “and the Meigs family says they’d be on their front porch watching the planes fly right in to their back yard.”
Telford Air has been trying to unload Maine Atlantic Aviation (the most recent name attached to this island commuter service) for months. “We kind of had a romantic, sentimental attachment to the airline,” explains Ziegelaar, the company president, “and we’ve tried to tell people on North Haven that it’s critical to lengthen that runway, but they don’t want to be bothered by us.”
Emergency service, however, gets everyone’s attention. Presently, LifeFlight’s two helicopters are on 24-hour stand-by in Bangor and Lewiston to take islanders to the hospital, if need be. And that’s the hitch – what kind of emergency warrants a $5,000 LifeFlight ride?
“There’s a spectrum of illness and injury, and some people don’t have an emergency but they need to see a doctor,” explains Tom Judge, executive director of this program that last year provided $600,000 of charity service. “If someone breaks a leg, traditionally we don’t use the helicopter – that’s different from a head injury of a heart attack – but they still need to get to the doctor and that’s where Maine Atlantic comes in.”
The ferry service to North Haven can always carry an ambulance, of course. And the Coast Guard promises to rescue, in a pinch – when it’s not off providing Homeland security.