Author: By Matthew Brelis, Globe Staff Date: 10/21/2000 Page: C1 Section: Business
Federal aviation officials can find no reason to prevent Shuttle America from starting service from Hanscom Field to New York's LaGuardia Airport, but will not approve the route until next week at the earliest, sources in Washington said yesterday.
Upstart Shuttle America angered many residents in Bedford, Concord, Lexingon, and Lincoln, the suburban communities that bound Hanscom, for reintroducing commercial service to the airport more than a year ago. Opposition became more intense when the airline announced this year that it would start flying to LaGuardia.
New routes, however, require federal approval, and airline executives were in contact with Federal Aviation Administration officials for much of yesterday trying to determine whether Shuttle America could begin LaGuardia service Monday. With no firm answer, however, the airline said it will use the additional aircraft on existing routes - something it can do without FAA approval.
"We are going to put five extra sections on to Trenton and Buffalo until further notice beginning Monday," said Mark Cestari, Shuttle America's vice president for marketing and communications.
Initially, Shuttle America had hoped to begin LaGuardia service in September, and sold tickets on flights in advance of the service starting. But the FAA, under pressure from local politicians, delayed giving the airline an amendment to its operating specifications allowing the new service, in order to conduct an environmental review under the National Historic Preservation Act.
"The new start date that we will look toward is Oct. 30, and we are hopeful that whatever final administrative details need to be handled will be done timely," said Cestari. "It does not seem to be good public policy nor consistent with [FAA Adminstrator Jane] Garvey's longstanding support for competition, alternative airports and improving conditions for air travelers around the country."
The Massachusetts Port Authority, which owns and operates Logan and Hanscom, has supported the airline's efforts to expand to LaGuardia because 2.4 million of Logan's 27 million passengers fly to or from New York City.
"The tragedy is that passengers are missing out on inexpensive, convenient service to Logan Airport's number one destination," said Massport spokesman Jose Juves. "Along with Acela [Amtrak's high speed train scheduled to start service in December] and American Eagle service from Worcester to JFK Airport, this would have been a nice alternative to Logan."
Massport is trying to promote regional aviation alternatives to Logan in an effort to build a controversial new runway at Logan.
When the FAA delayed the start of Shuttle America service to New York for the historic preservation review, it gave the state 30 days to conduct that review. The FAA supplied the state historic preservation officer with environmental documents, including a generic environmental impact statement.
The state, however, in an Oct. 12 letter to the FAA said the documentation was incomplete and "does not meet the standards under the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation's regula tions . . .to support your finding that no historic properties will be affected by Shuttle America flights from Hanscom Field to LaGuardia Airport."
The state historic preservation officer criticized the FAA for examining only the historic sites listed on the National and State Registers of Historic Places. Not only did the FAA not include more than 100 additional sites in the four towns that are contained in the Massachusetts Historical Commission's inventory, the FAA should also identify other sites "through a cultural resources survey," the state preservation officer argued.
The state's letter also indicated that public comment was not included, that noise impacts were not adequately considered and a traffic study submitted was not specific to Shuttle America.
An FAA official familiar with deliberations within the agency said the FAA was planning on taking the position that environmental effects of the additional service on historic areas surrounding the airport had been studied and the additional work that the state and opponents want done is "an overly burdensome process."
"Seven to 10 extra flights a day just isn't going to make a difference," the source said.