Boston Sunday Globe -- NorthWest section
January 30, 2005

Hanscom jet flights rise 8.9 percent
Noise complaints drop; critics decry impact of airport

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent

Spurred by corporate travel, jet activity at Hanscom Field in 2004 amounted
to 33,061 inbound and outbound flights, an 8.9 percent increase over the
previous year, according to information released last week by the
Massachusetts Port Authority, owner-operator of the Bedford airfield.

At the same time, the number of noise complaints declined from 7,614 in 2003
to 6,698 last year.

Activists opposing jet and commercial traffic at the airport reacted sharply
to both pieces of news, asserting that increased jet activity is intolerable
and that the number of noise complaints is still significant. Others,
however, viewed the rise in jet traffic as inevitable.

Liberty Mutual Group of Boston, Raytheon Co. of Waltham, and EMC Corp. of
Hopkinton are among the large companies flying jets in and out of the
airfield.

Meantime, two selectwomen, Sara Mattes of Lincoln and Anne Shapiro of
Concord, said that while Hanscom Field operations must still be monitored
closely, they are now concerned more about efforts to preserve the adjoining
Hanscom Air Force Base. A federal base closure commission will meet in May
to review base closings recommended by the secretary of defense.

Mattes is head of the Hanscom Area Towns Committee; Shapiro chairs the
Hanscom Field Advisory Commission.

Although jet traffic was up last year, the number of takeoffs and landings
by all craft decreased to 180,804 from 194,887 in 2003. Massport attributes
the downturn largely to the falling off of touch-and-go operations by flight
schools and a reduced number of flights by single-engine craft.

Commercial aviation is limping along, with only one carrier, Boston-Maine
Airways, in the picture. The airline, based in Portsmouth, N.H., resumed
operations at Hanscom Field last March, shortly before Shuttle America
departed after a nearly five-year run.

Last year, Boston-Maine, which has daily flights between Bedford and
Trenton, N.J., had 3,300 inbound and outbound flights; Shuttle America,
1,008. Shuttle America is now concentrating on its business in and out of
Pittsburgh.

The business of running the airport also yielded mixed results last year.
Massport's Hanscom Field revenues were $5.9 million in 2004, $1 million more
than 2003. The red ink remains, although last year's deficit of $1.1 million
shrank from the $2.3 million deficit in 2003. Security and insurance
expenses plus the amortization of capital costs remain high, Massport
spokesman Richard Walsh said.

The airport's spotty business results get no sympathy from activist groups
like Save Our Heritage, a historic preservation organization based in
Concord. Instead, it lashed out at the adverse effects of jet traffic and
noise on the surrounding area.

"The unchecked growth of corporate jet flights is harmful to Minute Man
Park, Walden, and many other sensitive sites in our area," asserted Anna
Winter, executive director of Save Our Heritage. "If this is allowed to
continue endlessly, increasing jet noise will simply ruin these nationally
important resources. We therefore call upon citizens to join our campaign
for federal legislation to limit the airport's noise and traffic impacts."

But Walsh disagreed. "The rise in jet activity reflects Hanscom Field's role
as a general aviation airport," he said. "And we have the infrastructure
that attracts corporate flight operations."

As for noise, he said, "there are now newer, quieter jets operating" at the
airfield.

While agreeing with Winter on the negative impacts of jet flights, Selectman
Sheldon Moll of Bedford said that jet operations, following a national
trend, will probably continue to increase at the airport until runway and
hangar space "runs out."

Unfortunately, "people seem to be resigned to the noise," said Moll, who has
been monitoring noise complaints for the last few years. "Also, some may
feel that when they complain, nothing happens."

Walsh said all complaints are taken seriously.

© Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
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