BostonHerald.com
Wednesday, June 20, 2001

Logan peak-pricing plan may contain `poison pill'
by Cosmo Macero Jr.

A plan to charge airlines more money to use Logan International Airport at
peak hours includes a ``poison pill'' exemption that's almost certain to
render the proposal inoperative, sources say.

That could further agitate anti-runway activists, who want Logan officials
to better control demand from major airlines if their efforts to halt a new
airstrip fail.

The Massachusetts Port Authority agreed to develop a so-called ``peak hour
pricing'' structure to win approval for its controversial new runway from
state Environmental Affairs Secretary Robert Durand. But a special exemption
that would relieve small passenger carriers like Cape Air from the extra
fees would face powerful opposition from the nation's major airlines - a
condition that Massport lawyers and other officials have been well aware of
for years.

``The airlines are going to weigh in there . . . and it will be very
instructive for us,'' said Massport Executive Director Virginia Buckingham,
who has signaled only lukewarm support for peak pricing.

But a likely result, sources say, may be an ultimate failure of peak hour
pricing to pass muster with the U.S. Department of Transportation, a
rejection of the plan in federal court, or both.

``You can't go forward with something that restricts American, Delta and
United, but not the small local carriers. They'll get an injunction to stop
it. Everybody knew that,'' said one former Massport official. ``It certainly
has the appearance of a poison pill that was placed in there by people who
never made a secret about their opposition to peak pricing. Massport knew
when they built in this exemption, they'd get sued and lose.''

The DOT shot down a premium landing fee program in 1988 because it
discriminated against small carriers. Observers say the reverse would be
true if small carriers are exempted from the current proposal.

``Of course they'd all want to be exempt,'' former Massport chief Peter
Blute said of the major airlines. ``That was the problem we had.''

Blute, who launched the new runway initiative now being managed by
Buckingham, said airport officials as recently as 1999 didn't think peak
hour pricing would be necessary for another 10 years.

``We looked at it hard,'' he said. ``I would think the Tom Kintons of the
world are still vehemently opposed to (peak pricing).'' Kinton is Massport's
head of aviation.

Still, Betty Desrosiers, director of aviation planning and development for
Massport, said airport officials are ``confident that we can design a
program that can withstand any legal challenge.''

``I'm not saying this will be easy,'' she said. ``There is a lot of thinking
that needs to be done about how to design a program from the legal
perspective.''

Desrosiers and Buckingham said while the net effect of an exemption may be
to relieve small carriers of a potentially ruinous financial burden, the
intent is to simply preserve flight service to communities that large
airlines don't serve.

``There are communities in Massachusetts as well as in New England concerned
about the impact on their ability to access the national airspace system,''
Buckingham said. ``That's a concern we have to weigh.''

Anti-runway activists - who short of halting the runway outright want the
maximum measurers possible to control Logan demand - have blasted Durand for
including what they say is weak language on peak pricing in his approval of
the new runway.

In addition to allowing the exemption, the Massachusetts Environmental
Policy Act report opens the door for Massport to substitute other
undetermined measures to control demand for runway use.


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