Lowell Sun
February 5, 2004

Commercial pause at Hanscom

By Rebecca Lipschitz, Sun Staff

BEDFORD -- As Shuttle America winds down service at Hanscom Field, the
future for any type of commercial airline service there is up for debate.

The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport), the quasi-state organization
that owns and oversees the airport, and at least one local expert say there
is no doubt that another airline will be interested in coming to Hanscom.
Local activists, on the other hand, say they're on the way to winning the
battle against growth at the airport.

"Commercial aviation has always failed at Hanscom, independent of the great
efforts on the part of Massport," said Anna Winter, executive director of
Save Our Heritage, a local preservation and environmental organization that
has protested commercial airport operations at Hanscom.

Fort Wayne, Ind.-based Shuttle America, doing business as US Airways
Express, will stop providing its four daily flights from Hanscom to Trenton,
N.J., as of May 1. It began offering flights at Hanscom in 1999, at one
point operating 36 round trips daily to five cities. [Note: Shuttle America
didn't have 36 daily round trips -- it had 36 daily *operations* (takeoffs
and landings), i.e., 18 round trips. -- mpa]

The commercial airline accounted for 3.5 percent of the airport's operations
last year, according to Jose Juves, spokesman for Massport. Most flights
from Hanscom are corporate jets or so-called "touch-and-go" flights pilots
in training who are taking off and landing without discharging or picking up
passengers.

"It's not going to have a significant effect on Massport revenues, but these
things seem to have a domino effect," Juves said. He explained that some
local businesses, such as car rentals and restaurants, depend on the foot
traffic generated by flights.

But Juves said neither the rapid growth of Manchester Airport in New
Hampshire, nor the recent approval for an additional runway at Logan
International Airport in Boston, is any threat to the commercial airline
business at Hanscom.

"The area produces quite a bit of travel, in addition to the (Route) 128
area," he said. "There is definitely a market there."

Manchester Airport serves a different market, Juves said. He added that the
expansion at Logan is not designed to increase capacity, but to compensate
for wind delays.

Robert Weiss, editor of the Boston Airport Journal, said there is no reason
to doubt that commercial routes will be offered at Hanscom again.

"It was a profitable route for them (Shuttle America) and I assume it will
be for anyone else," he said. "That suburban Boston location is still very
strong in selected markets," such as smaller planes.

Shuttle America president Scott Durgin has said that the Hanscom-Trenton
route was making money, but the company was choosing instead to concentrate
on its 105 daily flights in and out of Pittsburgh. He did not return calls
from The Sun.

"Clearly, we feel the departure of Shuttle America is a victory," said
Winter, who believes that the political pressure from Save Our Heritage and
local legislators helped stop other airlines from offering service at
Hanscom during a 2001 bid by Massport to expand commercial service.

"Because we were able to beat back the onslaught, their critical mass was
doomed," she said of the market for commercial flights.

But Weiss said he expects to see airlines such as Colgan Air (a U.S. Airways
Express carrier from Manassas, Va.) or Pan American Airways of Portsmouth,
N.H., to fill the gap.

"There is definitely going to be service out there. It's too good a
location," Weiss said.

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