Boston Globe
April 3, 2002

Boston-Maine Airways to quit Hanscom

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent

Boston-Maine Airways, which has been seldom seen at Hanscom Field since introducing limited service last summer, now says it is departing the airport for good.

The small Portsmouth, N.H.-based carrier has told the Massachusetts Port Authority, which owns and operates Hanscom, that it is ceasing operations as of this week because of scant business, according to Barbara Patzner, Hanscom airport director.

On March 20, the airline began offering two round trips a day from Hanscom to Hyannis, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard. Last July, it made an abortive attempt to serve Martha's Vineyard. Since then, there have been posted flights -- but few takers -- to destinations such as Portsmouth, White Plains, N.Y., Bangor, Maine, and St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. Last year, Boston-Maine had 228 operations from Hanscom, compared with 6,375 for Shuttle America, which operates as US Airways Express. Shuttle America currently offers six round trips a day between Hanscom and Trenton, N.J.

But Boston-Maine had only two Hanscom passengers in January and one last month, according to Massport. Its planes did not stop at Hanscom unless it had passengers there.

''We're sorry to see them go,'' Patzner said of Boston-Maine on Monday. ''But they obviously had to make a business decision.''

Boston-Maine's marketing vice president, Dan Fortnam, declined to discuss the airline's decision to scrub Hanscom from its schedule.

Since the airline has Federal Aviation Administration approval to operate at Hanscom, it's conceivable that operations here could be jump-started in the future. Meantime, Massport officials say, it's very unlikely that another carrier would get into the Hanscom lineup because of the commercial aviation slump everywhere.

Noting that Boston-Maine was never a factor here, local officials said they're focusing their concern almost solely on the increasing activity by corporate jets and jet aircraft offering fractional ownership shares to companies.

The number of jet aircraft operations rose nearly 35 percent from 2001 to 2002, Massport has reported. Last year, there were 30,797 jet operations.

Massport offcials have said the activity will not adversely affect the environment and that the jet traffic is within tolerable limits. But local officials believe otherwise.

Lexington Selectman Peter Enrich, chairman of the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission, said that Boston-Maine's departure is ''surprising, although good news.''

''But,'' he added, ''it's very troubling for the environment that the number of jet flights is at such a high level.''

Bedford Selectman Sheldon Moll, chairman of the Hanscom Area Towns Committee, agreed with Enrich that jet aircraft operations are the number one issue because of noise and potential harm to the region's environment.

''Boston-Maine was not going to make much of an impact on anything,'' said Moll. The towns committee is made up of selectmen from Bedford, Concord, Lexington, and Lincoln, the communities that surround Hanscom.

Anna Winter, executive director of Save Our Heritage, a Concord-based historic preservation group, had her own view of Boston-Maine's departure, however.

''Boston-Maine,'' Winter suggested, ''failed for a simple reason: Residents of the four towns wouldn't use it because they know it's wrong to increase flights over Walden and Minute Man [National Historical] Park.

''This year,'' Winter continued, ''with Scenic America's Last Chance landscape designation to back us up, we will be working to bring the same message to owners and users of corporate jets.''

Scenic America, a Washington-based nonprofit group, gave the ''last chance'' designation to the four towns in February because of commercial and jet aviation activities at Hanscom. Save Our Heritage nominated the four communities for the designation.

This story ran on page 1 of the Boston Globe on 4/3/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
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