Boston Sunday Globe -- NorthWest Weekly section
September 22, 2002

New airline at Hanscom Field increases number of flights

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent

BEDFORD -- The newcomer to Hanscom Field, Boston-Maine Airways, now says it has 122 scheduled flights a week from Hanscom. Meanwhile, Shuttle America, a fixture here since September 1999, will soon be flying only one route.

Shuttle America, which operates as US Airways Express, announced last week that it will discontinue its service of five round trips a day to Philadelphia on Oct. 6. Then it will have only 12 daily flights between Hanscom and Trenton, N.J. But also on Oct. 6, it will add two round trips daily between Trenton and Pittsburgh, from which the commuter airline now flies to eight cities in Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Kentucky.

Boston-Maine, which began serving Hanscom two months ago, is posting on its Web site scheduled flights between Bedford and Whbite Plains, N.Y.; Martha's Vineyard; Atlantic City, N.J.; Bangor, Maine; Portsmouth, N.H.; and St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. Boston-Maine is based in Portsmouth.

The airline, however, has admitted that it has had numerous "flyovers" because there were no passengers to pick up or drop off at Hanscom. And July and August operations reports submitted to the Massachusetts Port Authority, Hanscom's owner-operator, reflect little activity.

In July, Boston-Maine had 11 inbound and 11 outbound flights, which served a total of 12 passengers. In August, there were 52 operations and 50 passengers, according to Massport.

Dan Fortnam, the airline's marketing vice president, said, "Obviously, we're not where we need to be on traffic. But we're not pulling back one bit, because it takes time to build the business and awareness."

Shuttle America's decision to pull out of Philadelphia next month "is based on our redeploying planes to other markets," or cities served from the Pittsburgh hub, said Scott Durgin, chief executive of the airline, which recently relocated its headquarters from Windsor Locks, Conn., outside Hartford, to Fort Wayne International Airport in Indiana.

But the regional carrier will not be deserting Hanscom, Durgin emphasized, adding, "We expect to continue to be there for some time."

It's also possible, he said, that service could be resumed at some point to LaGuardia Airport in New York City. "LaGuardia still has potential," he said.

Shuttle America began serving LaGuardia from Hanscom in November 2000 but suspended service the following April, after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The airline subsequently came under the wing of Wexford Capital LLC, a private equity company based in Greenwich, Conn.

The fact that, for now anyway, Shuttle America is downsizing at Hanscom, and Boston-Maine is experiencing little demand, "proves that commercial aviation doesn't belong here," asserted Anna Winter, executive director of Save Our Heritage, a Concord-based historic preservation group. It has opposed commercial flights at Hanscom since Shuttle America landed there three years ago.

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