Boston-Maine sets June start for Hanscom-Newark flights

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent, 5/26/2002

BEDFORD - Boston-Maine Airways will launch its Hanscom Field service June 28 with one round trip to Newark (N.J.) International Airport, according to Dan Fortnam, marketing vice president of the Portsmouth, N.H.-based carrier.

One flight will leave Hanscom at 7:20 a.m. daily, the other will depart from Newark at 6:05 p.m., Fortnam said. One-way fares, he said, will be $94.50.

The commuter airline plans on having 20 additional operations from Hanscom shortly after the June 28 launch, he said last week, adding that he couldn't give specific dates.

However, planned are four additional round trips a day between Hanscom and Newark, three daily round trips to Martha's Vineyard, and three round trips between Portsmouth and Martha's Vineyard, with stops at Hanscom, Fortnam said.

Nineteen-seat JetStream turboprop planes will be used for all flights, he said.

Shuttle America, which operates as US Airways Express, was scheduled to introduce its service to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket last Friday. The Windsor Locks, Conn.,-based carrier has said it will have one flight each Thursday and Friday night to the islands, plus two flights each Saturday and Sunday.

Meanwhile, homeowners who live near Hanscom have been complaining about engine noise from Shuttle America planes undergoing nightly maintenance at the airfield.

At its meeting last Tuesday evening in Bedford, the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission formed a six-member subcommittee to look into the so-called engine run-up issue.

''We want to try to resolve complaints, which have been coming especially from people who live in the Virginia Road, Concord, area, where noise levels appear to be the highest from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.,'' said Sheldon Moll, the commission's chairman and a Bedford selectman.

''We also want to get logs of when maintenance work is done on Shuttle America's 12 planes,'' he said.

The carrier's spokesman, Mark Cestari, told Moll and other commission members that beginning July 1, maintenance on planes not flying out of Hanscom will be done elsewhere. From Pittsburgh, Shuttle America also flies to four cities in Ohio, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, and planes that fly those routes are frequently serviced at Hanscom.

This story ran on page W5 of the Boston Globe on 5/26/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
==========
**NOTICE: In accordance with 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.** ==========