Boston Globe
Sunday, June 19, 2005

Massport picks private firm to expand Hanscom Field
Seeks to boost corporate travel

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

The Massachusetts Port Authority plans to allow a private developer to
expand Laurence G. Hanscom Field's hangar and office space by more than a
third, further establishing the airport as a hub for corporate travel after
the Pentagon announcement to expand Hanscom Air Force Base.

Crosspoint Aviation Services plans by spring 2007 to add 91,000 square feet
of private offices and hangar space that will be used to cater flights to
high-end travelers. The Woburn-based company joins two other fixed-base
operators, which rent out hangars, refuel, and maintain aircrafts at the
largest general aviation airport in New England.

''There has been for a while the sense that Hanscom needs additional service
for the customers that come in and out of there," said John I. Williams Jr.,
president of the Massachusetts Business Aviation Association. ''It's
actually a busy airport."

The airfield is specializing in private jet services, and its efforts in
recent years to bring in commercial flights have diminished.

The steady expansion angers nearby residents, who are concerned about noise
of the aircraft and potential risks to the environment.

''This goes to the heart that there is not much meaningful input on the part
of the communities," said Margaret Coppe, president of ShhAir or
Safeguarding the Historic Hanscom Area's Irreplaceable Resources. ''We get
told what is going to happen, and that's the end of it. They tell us, we
listen, and we go home."

Last year, 33,061 private jets took off and landed at Hanscom. That figure
is slightly higher than the number of private jet operations at Logan
International Airport.

Business jet operations at Hanscom Field are up 63 percent since 2000.
Although several commercial companies considered coming to Hanscom, only
one, Boston-Maine Airways -- a Pan American Airways affiliate that sends
about seven flights to Trenton, N.J., each day -- is currently operating.

R. John Hansman, an aeronautics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, said Hanscom's move to expand is part of a nationwide trend
toward corporate travel, a segment of the industry that is becoming more
affordable and more convenient than flying commercially.

''The cost [of corporate travel] is going down, and the post-9/11 security
measures are making it more attractive," Hansman said. ''In addition,
airlines have started dropping their very high-end services. Most of the
low-end airlines don't have first-class services."

As corporate travel at Hanscom airport has increased, so has the bottom
line. Although the airfield is operating at a slight deficit, revenues last
year were $5.9 million, $1.8 million more than 2003, according to a report
released in March by Barbara A. Patzner, director of Hanscom Field.

The airfield, bounded by Bedford, Concord, Lexington, and Lincoln, has two
runways and is roughly the size of New York's LaGuardia Airport. It is owned
and operated by Massport and is separate from Hanscom Air Force Base, an
adjoining 846-acre installation that the Pentagon last month recommend be
expanded to accommodate 1,100 new jobs as part of a massive military
restructuring plan. An independent commission is evaluating the base closing
plan.

Local residents speculated that had Hanscom Air Force Base closed, Massport
would have sought to dramatically expand the airport into a commercial
satellite for Logan Airport. Hanscom's location just off Route 128 is
considered ideal for relieving an overcrowded Logan and offering an
accessible alternative to the western suburbs.

Massport spokesman Richard Walsh said the agency always supported plans to
keep the air base open, and it never planned an airfield expansion if the
Pentagon closed the base. Plans for a new wing at the airport were made as
early as 2000, he said, and a request for proposals was sent out in January.

''Massport recognizes the changing dynamics within the general aviation
industry," Walsh said. ''The Hanscom location is right in the 128 belt,
within 30 minutes of Boston, and there's a huge business community out there
that's recognizing and tapping into this airport."

The expansion is planned alongside the runway on the western side of the
airfield at Hangar 24, which was previously used by MIT for government
research. MIT has since moved to a larger hangar built by the military.

Crosspoint's new facility is expected to consist of a 60,000-square-foot
hangar, 18,000-square feet of flight support, and a 13,000-square-foot
terminal.

It joins two other private facilities that operate at the field, Signature
Flight Support and Jet Aviation. Both take up 238,000 square feet of hangars
and office space.

Regular users of the airport includes Raytheon, Liberty Mutual Insurance,
and EMC. The Celtics and the Bruins also fly in and out of Hanscom, and US
Senator John F. Kerry used it frequently during his presidential campaign.

Local residents' groups, which in the past have mounted vociferous
opposition to any expansion of the airport, are upset over the current
expansion plans, but they also say it could be worse if the base were to
close.

''Massport is a developer and is devoted to profit, not preservation," said
Anna West Winter, executive director of Save Our Heritage, a historic
preservation group based in Concord. ''It doesn't care if it destroys
Thoreau's Walden and Minute Man Park. It has no respect for these American
treasures, or for the communities."

Coppe, of the ShhAir group, said she sees incremental additions to Hanscom.
''It's like you see them adding things bit by bit and eventually you say,
'How did all of that get here?' " Coppe said. ''If they said they were doing
a second Logan, people would be up in arms. But it's hard to get people to
pay attention to one thing at a time if they don't understand all of the
implications."

The airfield opened in 1942 to help train fighter squadrons for combat in
North Africa and Europe, but its mission shifted in the 1950s to developing
technology to gather information and track potential military targets.

By 1974, Massport had taken control of the land and its maintenance, and the
field was converted primarily into a general aviation facility. The Air
Force still uses the airfield, but last year, those flights accounted for
less than 1 percent of the 180,804 flights, including general aviation, at
Hanscom.

Several airlines, including US Airways, discussed plans in 2001 to open
commercial operations at Hanscom but withdrew their plans shortly after a
public meeting when local protesters shouted down airline representatives.

Over the past several years, two airlines, Shuttle America and Boston-Maine,
have operated out of Hanscom, but Shuttle America left last year after a
five-year run. The airport has only one commercial terminal, which has about
a dozen metal seats, a metal detector, and kiosks for Hertz and Avis car
rentals. Most of the airport is made up of scattered hangars and
single-engine airplanes.

With more military jobs projected to come to the area, Massport officials
expect corporate flights will continue to increase. Last month, the Pentagon
released a plan that would add 1,100 jobs to the Air Force base by 2008. The
military also plans to add 615,000 square feet to the base at an estimated
cost of $131.3 million.

''You have all the success of the suburbs, with their schools and all of
that," Walsh said. ''And everybody loves these wonderful, high-paying jobs.
Well, we're the transportation center. We're part of that."

© Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
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