Boston Globe -- NorthWest Weekly section
February 9, 2003

Jet traffic rises sharply at Hanscom

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent

BEDFORD -- Corporate jet activity at Hanscom Field increased significantly last year, while the number of commercial flights rose only slightly, according to the Massachusetts Port Authority, owner-operator of the airfield.

A full report on Hanscom operations in 2002, including operating revenues and expenses, will be presented at the March 18 meeting of the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission at Lexington Town Hall, said Richard Walsh, a Massport spokesman. The report, he noted, also will be posted that day on the authority's website (www.massport.com).

Companies like the Lexington-based Raytheon and EMC Corp. of Hopkinton that have their own jet planes, as well as other firms owning fractional shares of jet aircraft, accounted for 30,797 operations at Hanscom in 2002, compared with 22,809 the previous year.

This activity has been picking up markedly since Sept. 11, 2001, and is of increasing concern to area selectmen, who have been fielding complaints from homeowners about noise, particularly at night.

Commercial operators, notably Shutttle America, which does business as US Airways Express, logged 6,603 operations last year. Shuttle America had the lion's share, or 6,375 flights; newcomer Boston-Maine Airways of Portsmouth, N.H., had the remaining 228 flights.

In 2001, Shuttle America had the airfield all to itself, chalking up 6,414 operations. Since last fall, the commuter airline, now based in Fort Wayne, Ind., has been ratcheting down its Hanscom operations. It currently has six round-trips a day, to and from Trenton, N.J.

With commercial aviation limping along, corporate jet flights have now emerged as the most bothersome issue at Hanscom, said Sheldon Moll, chairman of the Hanscom Area Towns Committee, comprising selectmen from the four communities (Lexington, Bedford, Concord, and Lincoln) adjoining the airport, and Peter Enrich of Lincoln, chairman of the advisory commission.

"The thing is, jet traffic is something that we have no control over," said Moll, had of the Bedford selectmen.

However, he said, he and Sara Mattes, chairwoman of the Lincoln Board of Selectmen, are now collecting noise complaints from individuals who live near the airfield.

"We'll try to correlate those complaints with flights operated by corporations and companies" that sell ownership shares to businesses, Moll said. "After doing that, we'll get the names of those operators, under the Freedom of Information Act, and talk to them about their operations, especially at night."

Among the national operators catering to fractional jet owners are NetJets of Woodbridge, N.J.; Marquis Jet Partners of New York; and Flight Options of Cleveland.

Jet activity is a concern not only because of noise, but also because of water and air pollution and increased traffic on Route 2A, said Enrich.

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