“What is your time worth?” asked Rick Lanman, manager of the Auburn-Lewiston Airport. “Ever since H.G. Wells first wrote The Time Machine in 1895, people have been dreaming about altering time to their own interests. And with the newest generation of business aviation travel, they can pretty much do just that,” he said.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of air travel is saving time. Lots of it. But with only about 500 U.S. communities served directly by commercial airlines — down from a high of “around 2,300,” according to Lanman, just prior to the deregulation of air travel — the relative importance of private and business aviation to move both people and cargo quickly and efficiently has grown exponentially in recent years. Community airports such as the Auburn-Lewiston facility, a unique collaboration between the twin cities when it was established, combined with state-of-the-art new aircraft enable getting there and back again in less time than ever, with fewer hassles, enhanced productivity, and at lower cost than ever before.

“As another example, the King Air 90 (from Beechcraft) is a turbo-prop plane that carries eight people. An entire family could vacation from the Auburn-Lewiston Airport (non-stop) to Orlando, Florida for instance, at a total cost of around $8,000 for a round trip. That is about the same as the cost for commercial flights for eight when you add in all of the extras but with a lot less waiting time, no travel to a commercial airport hub with its security, no-car-parking bill when you get home. Basically, no aggravation — a real vacation,” Lanman said. “You don’t even have to worry about missing your flight.”

It is well understood that time is money, and particularly well understood by those whose time is being wasted by some of the more frustrating elements of travel. Moreover, the impact of time is perhaps still more critical when considering cargo shipments, especially in the era of smaller inventories, smart logistics, and just-in-time (JIT) deliveries.

“The trend toward smaller inventories and JIT delivery is very beneficial to small manufacturers and the sort of small- and medium-sized businesses that are typical of central Maine,” Lanman said. “And these trends are consistent with the emergence of the Auburn-Lewiston area as a significant inland cargo port.”

As an example of how new aircraft technology can be especially helpful in the era of smart logistics, Lanman cited the Pilatus PC-12 single engine turbo-prop plane often seen at the Auburn-Lewiston airport. “That plane achieves fuel mileage of up to 15 miles per gallon or better,” he said, “and can carry a payload of 3,600 pounds with a range of somewhere around 2,600 nautical miles. At speeds of about 300 miles per hour, a Maine-based shipper can have cargo delivered to Houston, Texas in just five hours.”

For bigger loads, Embraer, one of the world’s better-known manufacturers of regional jets, “made a turbo-prop plane that can carry a 7,000-pound payload at 300 miles per hour. A fully loaded plane gets from Auburn to Manchester, New Hampshire in about 20 minutes every week day,” Lanman said. “Then there’s the ATR 72 cargo design that can deliver 15,875 pounds of payload from Auburn to Pittsburg in two hours,” he said, in contrast with a full 10-hour day on a truck. The cost may be approximately the same as with a truck when you count in all the costs of a truck, but products are being delivered in a fraction of the time.

“Time is money,” Lanman reminded. “Don’t store it — ship it! Get paid sooner. Avoid storage costs. Be part of the smart logistics, just-in-time delivery model that is transforming global commerce. Operating from the Port of Auburn, central Maine is no longer an inaccessible corner of the supply chain.” Local shippers, Lanman asserted, can “pick and choose aircraft carefully, and find the sweet spot of fuel costs, speed and payload that benefits them and their bottom line.”

The Auburn-Lewiston Airport has excellent access to roads and railroads and is adjacent to the Auburn Intermodal rail-truck transfer facility. The airport has averaged about 65,000 operations yearly for the past several years, holding steady in an industry where traffic has declined. While most of the current traffic at the airport is private aircraft, about 40 percent is commercial, including 10 percent cargo.

“There’s much less downtime and, conversely, quicker turn-around here at our airport,” than in big commercial airports, Lanman explained. “We are in a great place and provide great aircraft service and crew accommodations. We have great sight lines, full instrument landing capabilities, and with modern GPS and plane-to-plane communications, we are convenient for all pilots, virtually any time of day or any day of the week.”

Even weather is not an issue. “There was only one day this last winter season, despite the harsh record-breaking winter, when we were not open for air traffic. We are simply convenient. Time is money. What is your time worth?”

Aircraft