BostonHerald.com

Massport looks for exit after Worcester airport road flap

by Doug Hanchett
Thursday, April 18, 2002

Massport is suddenly looking for ways to disentangle itself from troubled Worcester Regional Airport, a move that could hamper regionalization efforts and put a greater strain on both Logan International Airport and Hanscom Field in Bedford.

Stymied by Worcester's unwillingness to bulldoze dozens of homes to build an airport access road, Massport has begun crafting an exit strategy for when its airport operating agreement runs out in 2005.

The move has outraged opponents of a new Logan runway, who say Massport's commitment to Worcester was just another ``hollow assurance'' to help secure state environmental approval of a new landing strip.

``So much for their grand regionalization plan,'' said Anastasia Lyman, vice president of Communities Against Runway Expansion. ``It is once again Massport, the agency of broken promises, doing it again. If they're planning on pulling out of Worcester, why isn't (Environmental Affairs Secretary
Robert) Durand . . . reconsidering his approval (of the new runway).''

Once touted as a key to regionalization efforts, Massport envisioned Worcester servicing between 800,000 and 1 million passengers a year by the end of the decade. Massport was poised to assume ownership of the airport as a way to lighten the load at Logan, the fifth-most delayed airport in the country.

But that was with the Massachusetts Highway Department constructing a four-lane highway to the airport from Interstate 290. The connector road was expected to be ready by 2007, but last month the Worcester City Council voted unanimously not to support the plan, most likely scuttling the project.

``Now that we've come up against a City Council logjam, what are we going to do?'' Massport board chairman Mark Robinson asked his colleagues last week. He later answered his own question by adding that they'll probably have to ``give the airport back to the city.''

Robinson later instructed Massport administrators to come up with a ``Worcester strategy,'' which could include some sort of long-term management agreement for the airport. But aviation director Tom Kinton said without the access road, it would be difficult to justify the agency's ongoing oversight of Worcester, which loses about $1.5 million a year.

``Having been out there and trying to market it and sell it, the only thing we can sell (to the airlines) is the road,'' said Massport aviation director Tom Kinton. ``I don't think there's a bright future out there.''

Board member Jim Coull was even more blunt. He called the airport ``hopeless'' without the access road.

Coull said Worcester still has potential and Massport remains committed to regionalization. But he admitted that it's unlikely the agency can continue to prop up the underperforming airport.

``We can make it work,'' said Coull. ``It just gets very difficult without that road . . . and Massport isn't in a position to subsidize very much.''

==========
**NOTICE: In accordance with 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.** ==========