BostonHerald.com

Hanscom offering Newark flights

by Greg Gatlin
Thursday, June 6, 2002

An affiliate of New Hampshire-based Pan American Airways yesterday announced daily flights between Bedford's Hanscom Field and Newark International Airport.

Boston-Maine Airlines, of Portsmouth, N.H., said tickets are on sale for its Pan Am Clipper Connection to Newark International Airport, which will start June 28. Boston-Maine may be looking to step in for regional airline Shuttle America Inc., which has suspended service to LaGuardia airport in New York and canceled flights to Westchester County.

Pan Am said yesterday that Boston-Maine will fly one daily round-tripper between Hanscom and Newark, using 19-passenger Jetstream 31 twin-turbo prop planes. But last month, Pan Am notified Massport, which operates Hanscom, that it aims to fly six daily flights between the suburban airport and Newark.

Pan Am's Boston-Maine would also fly twice daily to New York's Westchester County and make several flights to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

Massport said in a letter to Boston-Maine last month that its flight plans would increase daily departures from Hanscom to 24 from the 11 Shuttle America now has.

Activists in surrounding towns have protested increasing commercial flights at the suburban air field, arguing that they hurt nearby historic sites.

Save Our Heritage, an activist group, said adding flights to the New York area is ``irresponsible'' and ``poor transportation planning.'' Anna Winter, the group's executive director, said Shuttle America's LaGuardia flights had just a handful of passengers and were ``a dismal failure.''

``We expect Boston-Maine to do no better,'' she said.

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