Concord Journal
Thursday, November 20, 2003

New hangar coming to Hanscom in spring

By Barbara Forster / Correspondent

Hanscom Air Field should have at least one new building come spring, according to William Costa, senior leasing project manager for Liberty Mutual.

The update occurred on Tuesday, Nov. 18 during a meeting of the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission.

"We have a letter of intent with Massport," said Costa, "and we are developing a design (for a hangar)."

Liberty Mutual hopes to change Hangar One into a hangar/office combo; approximately 30,000 square feet of hangar space and another 10,000 to 12,000 square feet for offices. Costa explained that the company has four planes, each with a seat capacity of less than 20, and wants to be able to keep them all in the same building. Only three fit in its current 20,000-square-foot facility.

"Our operations are very modest," he added. "We have less than one flight per day."

The company does not intend to expand flight operations.

Liberty, which will tear down the building to make way for a new facility, took on the project after Jet Aviation declined to act on its right of first refusal.

Richard Walsh of Massport noted the agency will lease the current Liberty Mutual facility.

-- On the ground

Walsh reported 639 parking spots have been striped in the Civil Air Terminal parking lot. Statistics in the recent environmental report for the field indicate that a maximum of 701 spots could be created.

-- And in the skies

Overall aircraft activity at Hanscom is down again, as it has been every month this year. The total number of operations between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. decreased almost 12 percent in October, compared to last year in all categories, except business jets which went up by 0.4 percent. In September, the number of business jet operations increased 5.6 percent.

Military action also went up from 108 last year to 148 in October.

Night operations (11 p.m. to 7 a.m.) were also down from 211 operations in October 2002 to 162 this year. Complaints slid too, from 709 to 484.

Nevertheless, Peter Enrich of Lexington pointed out that annual nighttime operations have increased dramatically since 1981, especially in the last five years.

"You see a steady climb and if it continues along that slope, it means continuing distress for citizens," he said.

-- Who's flying where?

Currently Shuttle America has four daily flights to Trenton, N.J. but plans to ramp back up to six in spring.

In the meantime, a Canadian nine-seat charter will operate out of Hanscom to a ski area in Quebec between January and March. Flights will arrive on Thursdays and Sundays at 6:30 p.m. The trips are package deals that include airfare, hotel, and ski lift tickets and must be booked through a travel agent.

Passengers will arrive and leave through the Civil Air Terminal.

-- Other news

Walsh distributed a media advisory from the Air Force that routine training would take place from Nov. 16 to 22 in the greater Boston area. Elements of U.S. Special Operations Command plan to use Hanscom Air Force Base as a central location to connect various forces in the Northeast/New England area.

Training includes occasional overflight by helicopters in early evening hours.

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