Airline cancels Hanscom launch
Boston-Maine eyes Worcester instead

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent, 2/3/2002

BEDFORD - Boston-Maine Airways is withdrawing its inaugural flight plans for Hanscom Field next month, amid some speculation that the fledgling commuter airline may be eyeing Worcester Airport instead.

Boston-Maine's decision last week to indefinitely postpone planned service to Atlantic City, which had been slated to begin March 3, came on the heels of a Massachusetts Port Authority directive calling for certain actions to be taken before the airline can take off from Hanscom.

Foremost among these is an environmental-impact study to be conducted by the airline, with results submitted to officials of Bedford, Concord, Lexington, and Lincoln for their review. Portions of the airfield fall into each of those communities.

Triggering the Massport request for an environmental study is a new agency policy aimed at any airline whose schedule would push the number of daily commercial operations at Hanscom over 48, a limit mandated by a 1995 environmental report.

Since Shuttle America is gearing up for 46 flights a day, Boston-Maine has to demonstrate that its operations would not adversely affect the environment, Thomas J. Kinton Jr., Massport's acting executive director, noted in a Jan. 25 letter to John Nadolny, senior vice president and general counsel of Boston-Maine.

In addition to providing one round trip a day to Atlantic City, Boston-Maine has said it wants to operate two daily round trips, beginning the third week in April, to both Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

Kinton, who also is director of aviation for Massport, asked the airline to submit all of its operating certificates and permits as well as a plan for sharing space at Hanscom with Shuttle America. Boston-Maine currently offers 14 flights a day among three cities in Maryland.

Kinton also informed Nadolny that Massport is updating its Environmental Status Planning Report, or ESPR, on Hanscom. The report is expected to be completed and approved early next year.

Because of time pressures, Boston-Maine is ditching its plans for now to serve Atlantic City from Hanscom while mulling over Kinton's requests, according to Dan Fortnam, marketing vice president.

''We just don't know what our next step will be,'' he said, referring to a response to Kinton's letter. ''There are lots of questions that still have to be answered.''

Massport made the right move in asking Boston-Maine to conduct its own environmental survey, said Peter Enrich, a Lexington selectman and a member of the Hanscom Area Towns Committee.

''This is one instance where the interests of the four communities and Massport are aligned,'' Enrich said.

Boston-Maine will begin serving Atlantic City and White Plains, N.Y., on March 3, Fortnam said, from Portsmouth, N.H., where the airline and its affiliate, Pan American Airways, are based.

Asked whether Boston-Maine might cancel all of its Hanscom plans, Fortnam said, ''We think it's important that the airport is utilized. But Hanscom is also only one of a whole bunch of opportunities for us.''

Is it likely that Boston-Maine will now set its sights on Worcester Airport, already served by Pan Am?

Fortnam hinted that that may be the case, while stopping short of saying that plans are being readied.

''We've always considered Worcester [Airport] for service to Cape Cod and the islands,'' he said. ''In fact, we wanted to start that service there last summer, but we didn't get our [operating specifications] in time.''

The airline received its operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration on Dec. 20.

Meanwhile, Shuttle America is still on schedule to resume service to New York's LaGuardia Airport on Feb. 11, with six daily round trips, and to operate five round trips a day, starting March 4, to Westchester County Airport in White Plains, N.Y., spokesman Mark Cestari said.

Shuttle America had operated between Hanscom and LaGuardia from Nov. 1, 2000, to April 15, 2001, when the airline, based in Windsor Locks, Conn., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Hartford. It is now emerging from bankruptcy under the wing of Wexford Capital LLC, a private equity firm that has offices in Greenwich, Conn.

Under a marketing agreement with US Airways, Shuttle America has been flying from Hanscom since last Oct. 24 as US Airways Express, with seven round trips daily to Trenton, N.J., and five round trips to Philadelphia.

This story ran on page W1 of the Boston Globe on 2/3/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
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