Boston Globe
NorthWest Weekly section
April 13, 2003

Fees may climb at Hanscom Field
Massport's aim is slicing deficit

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent, 4/13/2003

Planes are taking off and landing at Hanscom Field in record numbers annually. But the Massachusetts Port Authority, the airport's owner-operator, is struggling to get a fix on how Hanscom, as a $4.6 million-a-year-business, can erase yearly deficits and propel itself into the black.

While New England's largest general aviation airfield has been able to chalk up operating surpluses during the past two years, the positive results have been swallowed up by money set aside for capital costs such as new equipment and upgrading facilities.

For example, even though there was a $728,000 operating surplus in fiscal 2002, the airport had a deficit of about $880,000, compared with $1.3 million in 2001, after amortized costs were factored in.

As a result, Massport is studying new ways of boosting revenue by raising hangar and landing fees as well as other charges to tenants, Barbara Patzner, director of the airport since 1987, said in a recent interview.

Despite revenue-enhancing items planned for the remainder of fiscal 2003, which ends June 30, Hanscom's total deficit probably will exceed $2 million, said Patzner, who pointed out, for example, that a much-needed, $600,000 parking lot paving project is expected to start by the end of April.

But during the next year and a half, rent hikes and other fee increases should kick in favorably, she said. She declined to be specific, saying proposals are still being discussed.

At the same time, she and other Massport officials said they are hopeful of retaining the operations momentum achieved in fiscal 2002, when there were 218,248 takeoffs and landings, a 6.2 percent increase over the previous year's figure. The only disappointment, they noted, was that Shuttle America and Boston-Maine Airways served 67,688 passengers between them last year, compared with 134,337 passengers in 2001. (Boston-Maine has since departed Hanscom for other venues.) However, the number of business jet operations rose from 22,839 in 2001 to 30,797 in 2002.

''We're moving in the right direction for the airport to be self-sustaining after the economy and aviation industry improve,'' said Patzner, who before landing the Hanscom job was general manager for Continental Airlines at Logan International Aiport. She now reports to Thomas J. Kinton Jr., Massport's director of aviation.

Patzner's stewardship is generally applauded by aviation industry specialists like Ford von Weise, a pilot and representative of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, a national trade group.

''Massport and Patzner are doing an excellent job of maintaining the airport,'' said von Weise, who lives in Carlisle. ''The only concerns are the high costs of running the airport, which may be due to it being located in the Boston area.''

As a business, Hanscom is proceeding as ''a fine, full-service, general aviation airport,'' suggested John I. Williams Jr., president of the Massachusetts Business Aviation Association, a nonprofit group with offices in Concord.

''No operation is perfect, including Hanscom, but at least there are always discussions about improvements such as hangar developments and advanced security systems,'' he said.

Hanscom's revenues during the last fiscal year moved upward to $4.6 million, nearly a 14 percent increase over 2001. The 2002 total, Patzner noted, included a onetime $300,000 grant from the Federal Aviation Administration for security measures and a onetime commission of $200,000 resulting from the acquisition of Mercury Air Center by Signature Flight Supports. Signature and Jet Aviation, both of which are involved in aircraft maintenance, leasing, and sales, are two of Hanscom's largest tenants.

A big chunk of Hanscom's revenues last year, $1.3 million, came from hangar leases. Other big-ticket revenue items included $752,000 from land, including ramps, leased to so-called fixed-base operators like Signature and Jet Aviation; $767,000 from fuel flowage fees (9 cents a gallon); $446,000 from terminal building rents; $423,000 from commissions based on Signature's and Jet Aviation's business receipts; and $180,000 from 10 percent commissions gained from Hertz and Avis car rental operations at Hanscom.

Shuttle America, which was downsizing operations last year at Hanscom, paid $82,000 for landing fees and rent in 2002. It operates as US Airways Express.

On Hanscom's expense side of the ledger for fiscal 2002, administrative, maintenance, and utility costs topped the list at $2.4 million, followed, Patzner said, by $1.6 million for the amortization of capital costs, and $1.5 million for insurance, vendor and professional fees, and security.

This story ran on page N1 of the Boston Globe on 4/13/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
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