OWLS HEAD (AP) – The owner of Maine Atlantic Aviation has agreed to continue providing flights to and from Penobscot Bay islands for 90 days while businesses and island advocates seek an alternative air link.

Earlier this week, Roland Lussier said he would no longer fly his single-engine planes to such islands as Vinalhaven, Matinicus and Islesboro. He said the business was losing money at a rate of more than $100,000 a year.

Lussier, who bought the business at the end of July, said he will probably continue the service through the end of March.

“I expect to lose about $45,000,” he said.

Community and business leaders have been working to preserve air service to the islands after Lussier announced he could no longer do it. Many islanders rely on the service for mail, freight, emergency medical evacuation and the convenience of traveling faster than by boat to and from the mainland.

Bob Hastings, director of the Rockland-Thomaston Area Chamber of Commerce, and Philip Conkling, president of the nonprofit Island Institute in Rockland, said they plan to hold a meeting for people to explore alternatives.

Lussier said Hastings and Conkling asked him on Wednesday to continue the air service to the islands for 90 days, and he agreed. That should give the Chamber and Island Institute time to plan alternatives, he said.

Lussier said he has not been able to make the company profitable since taking it over last summer. If he discontinues the flights, he will continue to offer fuel and maintenance services to planes as he now does, he said.

While air travel is down and insurance and fuel costs are up, Lussier said he has also been forced to pay for improvements to island airfields because they were in such poor condition.

Lussier said running the business requires owning two airplanes and employing two pilots, a chief pilot and a dispatcher. The costs, he said, exceed the revenues generated by flying eight to 12 people a day to and from the islands in the winter months.