Lowell Sun
Wednesday, March 19, 2003

Hanscom flights soar, upsetting residents

By Jason Lefferts, Sun Staff

BEDFORD -- More private and business jets than ever are flying in and out of Hanscom Field, and while airport officials believe that is a positive development, activist groups around the area say it's a realization of their worst fears.

According to figures released this week by Massport, the state agency that runs the airport, nearly 31,000 private and business jets took off or landed at Hanscom in 2002. That figure was 35 percent higher than 2001, and represented 14 percent of all operations at the airport -- the largest percentage ever.

Massport has worked to turn Hanscom into a regional private jet base in an effort to siphon air traffic from Boston's Logan International Airport. With corporate-jet use growing, and the airport within a half-hour of Boston and in the middle of Route 128's technology strip, Massport believes Hanscom is starting to come into its own.

"I think there's a growing recognition that Hanscom Field is a premier corporate jet facility," said Jose Juves, a Massport spokesman. "As in real estate, it's location, location, location."

But critics of the airport say location is its biggest problem. The airport is nestled among four tony suburban towns and near historical sites like the Minute Man National Historical Park and Walden Pond. As air traffic increases, history buffs and neighborhood activists are concerned about the local impact of the suddenly crowded skies, primarily due to noise pollution.

According to Massport figures, in 1992 less than 4 percent of the 239,000 total operations at the airport were private jets. With 8,105 jet flights that year, it was the end of a downward spiral brought on by an economic recession.

Private jet business has so far been economy-proof at Hanscom, which is surrounded by the wealthy towns of Lexington, Bedford, Concord and Lincoln. Last year, there were 218,000 flights, and one out of every seven operations were private jets.

"Here they are trumpeting in this triumphal manner they're very happy with numbers that are more than triple their 1995 jet flights. They think this is good," said Marty Pepper Aisenberg, the projects director for the Concord-based Save Our Heritage, a group fighting expanded use of the airfield.

"The reality is this increase in jet flights has had a tremendous impact on the communities and on sites that require quiet to carry out their missions," he said.

The jets are among the loudest planes that fly in and out of the airport, activists say. While there are stretches of quiet during the day, it is often disrupted by the high-powered planes. Neighbors have said on Sunday afternoons in the summer and early mornings during the week, they struggle to ignore the stream of jets flying in and out.

Save Our Heritage is spearheading a multifaceted effort aimed at reducing operations at Hanscom, with plans to fight Massport on both the state and federal levels. Pepper Aisenberg said he doesn't know what an appropriate number of jet flights at Hanscom would be, but he feels the current number is too many.

"I think one can fairly argue that there are already too many," Pepper Aisenberg said.

Juves said the market for private jets has grown as many companies share the use of jets, making it cheaper and less time-consuming than commercial travel. He said there is room for more jet traffic at Hanscom if the market dictates it.

"It's a means of travel that is gaining popularity in the business community, and what was once relegated to the CEOs of top corporations is now being used more and more by the smaller, mid-size companies," Juves said.

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