Bedford Minuteman
June 7, 2001

HFAC says environmental review needed before airline action

By Barbara Forster
Correspondent

A three-part message about additional commercial airline service at Hanscom
Air Field is on its way to the Massport Board of Directors from the Hanscom
Field Advisory Commission. The decision to send the missive occurred during
HFAC's May 30 meeting in Lincoln.

An earlier meeting, held May 15 in Bedford, ended after HFAC Chairman Sara
Mattes abruptly adjourned the group when dozens of residents refused to stop
marching around the room calling for an end to commercial airline service.
The demonstration followed presentations by three airlines, Pan Am, USAir,
and Midway, who want to begin service this year at Hanscom.

HFAC's three-part advisory action is to the Massport board, which is voting
on an operating agreement for Pan Am at its monthly June meeting. HFAC plans
to recommend that Massport ask Pan Am to put its application on hold until
the agency proceeds with an environmental review.

If the airline and/or Massport balk at that suggestion, the next step is to
ask both Pan Am and Shuttle America, which is currently flying at the field,
to agree to not exceed the threshold of 48 total operations between them.
Shuttle America will have 34 daily operations this month and Boston-Maine
Airways, the subsidiary of Pan Am that would operate at Hanscom, has stated
it wants 14 operations.

Massport analyzed that threshold in the 1995 Generic Environmental Impact
Review and promised further environmental review if the threshold was
reached before the next study.

In addition HFAC plans to offer a " firm " opinion that Massport should not
give the remaining two airlines the OK until the environmental review is
completed.

HFAC members also are sending an open letter to the public reaffirming the
group's support of general aviation at the field.

The missive was at the request of HFAC member Brad Balise, line operations
manager at Jet Aviation. Balise reported that on May 2, Save Our Heritage, a
community activist organization, staged an " unannounced protest of general
aviation and corporate activity " on Jet Aviation grounds.

" We were very surprised that this happened, " said Balise later. " Our
clients were unhappy; this was the first time an open house was at our
facility. "

Massport has authorized a general permit for demonstrations, but only in
designated areas of the Civil Terminal Building.

On the day of the protest, a Jet Aviation client held an open house for
people interested in time shares in corporate jet planes.

" In general it's important that this body (HFAC) reaffirm its position
regarding general aviation, " said HFAC member Tom Hoban, president East
Coast Aviation. " I've never heard anybody (in the communities) put GA on
the back burner. "

Noise level on a downward spiral?

Jet activity at Hanscom Air Field decreased in April 2001 as compared to
last year. " There were fewer jet operations in every jet category both day
and night, " said Massport representative Sara Arnold.

Arnold made the report to the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission on
Wednesday, May 30. Although civilian departure EXP also went down for the
same period, Arnold stressed that it was premature to attempt to determine
whether this is a trend or a fluke. April 2000 had the highest monthly
civilian departure EXP as compared to the previous 25 months.

Jet activity went from 1,930 in April 2000 to 1,786 this year and EXP
dropped 2.3 decibels.

EXP, a metric that evaluates changes in the fleet mix and number of
operations, distinguishes civilian noise from military noise and indicates
changes in total noise exposure which reflect changes in the Day-Night
Average Sound Level (Ldn).

However, other kinds of aircraft activity are rising. The total number of 7
a.m. to 11 p.m. operations rose almost 24 percent, primarily due to
increases in single engine piston operations including touch-and-go
activity. Military operations also increased and night activity, 11 p.m. to
7 a.m. went up 8 percent. Complaints about noise jumped almost 12 percent.


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