Boston Globe/NorthWest
August 29, 2002

Focus shifts to business flights

By Davis Bushnell
Globe Correspondent

BEDFORD -- With commercial aviation activity limping along at Hanscom Field, local officials and activist group leaders say they are shifting their attention to soaring corporate jet operations.

The officials and activists assert that business jet flights now pose a bigger threat, in terms of noise and negative effects on the area's environment, than commercial operations, which have been sluggish since spring. Their concerns about where corporate jet aviation is headed will receive a full airing this fall, when technical workshops will be held on the draft of a 2000-2015 Environmental Status and Planning Report on the airfield. The first workshop on regional transportation will be held at 7 p.m. on Sept. 12 in Bedford Town Hall.

But even then, these officials concede, there is little that can be done besides voicing objections because corporate jets may take off and land anytime of the day or night, because of Hanscom's status as a general aviation airport. In contrast, commercial operations are limited to 48 a day.

Still, corporate aviation is a topic that must be addressed head-on because "it constitutes the largest rate of growth for the airport," said Sheldon Moll, a Bedford selectman and chairman of the Hanscom Area Towns Committee, which is made up of officials from Bedford, Concord, Lexington, and Lincoln, the communities in which Hanscom is located.

Moreover, Moll and others maintain, the evolution of corporate aviation is being played down by the Massachusetts Port Authority, owner-operator of Hanscom, which is overseeing the 2000-2015 environmental impact survey. Massport denies the charge.

Last month, jet operations of companies like Raytheon of Lexington and EMC Corp. of Hopkinton, together with those sharing aircraft ownership at Hanscom, totaled 2,209, or a 64 percent increase over July 2001, according to Massport. Corporate craft are stored and maintained at Jet Aviation and Signature Flight Support, both of which have large facilities at Hanscom.

In June, business jets acounted for 2,548 operations, or a 43 percent rise over the same month a year earlier.

The revving up of business jet operatoins can be attributed to the sour economy and cutbacks by large commercial carriers at Logan in Boston and other international airports, Hanscom's prime location for companies based in the suburbs, and the increasing popularity of companies owning an interest in a small jet plane, said Richard Walsh, a Massport spokesman.

Meantime, commercial aviation activity at Hanscom appears to be at a standstill.

Shuttle America, operating as US Airways Express, ended its service to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket on Aug. 4. Earlier in the year, it scuttled service to LaGuardia Airport in New York City and Westchester County Airport in White Plains, N.Y. It now has six daily round-trips between Hanscom and Trenton, N.J., and five round-trips to Philadelphia.

The regional carrier, which this weekend will relocate its headquarters from outside Hartford to Fort Wayne International Airport in Indiana, logged 604 operations at Hanscom in June of this year, and accounted for most of the 710 commercial operations reported to Massport for July.

Last year in June, Shuttle America had 536 operations, and in July the airline had 508 operations. In all of 2001, the airline had 6,414 Hanscom operations.

The July 2002 operations picture is a bit cloudy because Portsmouth, N.H.-based Boston-Maine Airways has yet to submit its report for that month to Massport, said Walsh, adding that a notice recently was sent to the small carrier. The airline, which introduced one daily round-trip to Martha's Vineyard on July 1, has acknowledged that it has [not] made scheduled stops at Hanscom numerous times since then because there were no passengers to pick up or drop off.

Confident that Hanscom's commercial aviation scene is quiet, at least for now, leaders of grassroots groups are focusing their efforts on trying to slow down what they say is the booming corporate aviation trend.

"Our attention may have been diverted when Shuttle America was seen as the threat, but we're now tuned in to what is even a bigger threat than commercial aviation -- corporate jet activity," said Margaret Coppe of Lexington, president of ShhAir, or Safeguarding the Historic Hanscom Area's Irreplaceable Resources.

"We'll be looking for some answers [from Massport]," added Coppe, who is also a member of the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission.

Anna Winter, executive director of Save Our Heritage, a Concord-based historic preservation group, predicted "there will be 32,000 jet operations, conseratively, at Hanscom this year -- more than triple the 1996 level."

Moll, the Bedford selectman, said Massport is low-balling estimates of corporate aviation growth.

Walsh, the Massport spokesman, denied Moll's claim the agency is underestimating future corporate aviation growth at the airport. He refused to comment on Winter's claim there would be 32,000 operations this year.

Massport has projected that there could be as many as 36,114 corporate and charter jet operations at Hanscom in 2005 and 54,961 operations in 2015.

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