MetroWest Daily News
April 27, 2001
By GREG TURNER
CNC STAFF WRITER
CONCORD — " Massport is coming, Massport is coming. "
In a twist on Paul Revere’s famous ride, Chick Daigle, sporting a tricorn
hat, galloped around Monument Square on horseback to warn the townspeople,
not of a Redcoat invasion, but of airport expansion.
The Carlisle resident’s stunt grabbed the attention of protesters assembled
outside the Concord Town House, as well as airline executives and Massport
officials entering the building to talk to local leaders about new flights
at Hanscom Field.
Commercial airline foes timed a candlelight vigil with the monthly meeting
of the Hanscom Area Towns Committee, a group of selectmen from Bedford,
Concord, Lexington and Lincoln, who were scheduled to scrutinize plans of
Midway Airlines and Boston-Maine Airways, a Pan Am affiliate.
All but a few of the protesters boycotted the meeting, using the rally to
criticize Massport for what they say is a failure to give the airport
communities a " meaningful public process. "
" We feel it’s an exercise in futility, " said Lori Eggert, a
Bedford
resident and member of the activist group ShhAir. " We consider this
last-minute notice a sham. "
The Massachusetts Port Authority announced last week that the two airlines
are interested in running flights out of the Bedford airport.
Echoing the protesters outside, the selectmen blasted Massport for giving
the committee and the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission, a local regulatory
board, such a small window of opportunity to conduct a review.
Massport’s community liaison Richard Walsh said the agency’s Board of
Directors most likely will consider the airlines’ requests to fly out of
Hanscom at its meeting in May, just two days after the next Hanscom Field
Advisory Commission meeting. The airlines, which need approval from the
Federal Aviation Administration, hope to begin flying from Hanscom by early
summer.
" This is not a process, " said Lincoln Selectman Sara Mattes.
" I ask that
we strike that word from the record. "
After criticizing Massport for failing to have the airlines submit their
plans before the meeting, Lexington Selectman Peter Enrich said, " I might
be better out there participating in the protest than sitting in here. "
But the committee did hear, at least, what the airlines have in mind. Midway
Airlines said it intends to initiate three daily flights of its 50-seat jets
to its home state of North Carolina.
" We believe there’s a high level of interest in service between
Hanscom and
Raleigh-Durham, " said Steven Westberg, Midway’s executive vice president
and general manager. " Both are high-tech areas. "
Boston-Maine Airways wants to fly its 19-seat turboprops on four daily
flights from Hanscom to Cape Cod and the Islands, according to Pan Am
president David Fink.
The committee grilled Westberg and Fink, the most pointed questions on when
the companies first contacted Massport and how much they think their Hanscom
operations could grow.
Massport maintains that commercial flights at Hanscom are important to the
agency’s efforts to ease congestion at Boston’s Logan Airport through
regionalization.
One airline, Shuttle America, already flies from Hanscom, but its September
1999 start sparked a federal lawsuit from the towns and activist groups.
The Connecticut-based airline is struggling financially — it filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week — but its chief executive
officer, David Hackett, said last night the company will announce a " new
investment " in its LaGuardia Airport route. Shuttle America recently
reduced the number of flights from Hanscom to the New York hub.
Former Concord Selectman Arthur Fulman asked the Pan Am and Midway
executives to reconsider landing in Hanscom, arguing that it is " not
really
a great market. "
Eggert, one of few protesters to come inside, said the airlines are not
welcome.
" Your passengers are going to know that soon enough when they meet our
picketers, " she said.
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