Report may give clearance for more Hanscom flights
Environmental study due out on Thursday

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent, 6/23/2002

A preliminary assessment of environmental issues at Hanscom Field is likely
to clear the way for an increase in the current limit of 48 commercial
flights a day, according to state official familiar with the study.

A glimpse of the future of commercial aviation at Hanscom Field will be
provided Thursday evening, when Massachusetts Port Authority officials make
their first presentation to area selectmen on a 2005-2010 environmental
survey of the airfield.

Preliminary findings, which later will be incorporated in a formal
Environmental Status Planning Report, will be the subject of a meeting of
the Hanscom Area Towns Committee at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Bedford
Town Hall. The committee is made up of selectmen from Bedford, Concord,
Lexington, and Lincoln.

The state secretary of environmental affairs office requires Massport to
conduct an Environmental Status Planning Report every five years. Subjects
surveyed for the report range from water and air quality, noise, airfield
infrastructure, and types of aircraft used, to the effects of general and
commercial aviation on the area's cultural and historical landmarks. The
report is being prepared by Rizzo Associates of Boston, under an $850,000
contract from Massport.

Massport, which owns and operates Hanscom, is not revealing until Thursday
what it has in store for the airfield. But the agency has been promoting
Hanscom as a regional airport to relieve traffic at Logan International
Airport in Boston. The state official familiar with the study, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said he sees no negative factors in the report that
would prevent an increase in Hanscom operations. He would not say what new
limit Massport has in mind.

Massport officials are expected to be questioned about daily flight
operations that will be permitted in the period covered by the planning
report. A similar 1995 report led to the current daily limit of 48
commercial operations, Monday through Friday.

''We're anxious to hear about what Massport has to say about a flight
operations threshold in the coming years as well as the extent of corporate
aviation activity projected,'' said Gary Clayton, a Concord selectman and
head of the towns committee.

The airfield's effect on the quality of life in the four towns has been a
hot-button issue since Shuttle America, based in Windsor Locks, Conn., began
serving Hanscom in September 1999. Mohawk Air served Hanscom from 1989 to
1991, before succumbing to financial difficulties.

Currently, Shuttle America, operating as US Airways Express under a
marketing agreement with US Airways, has 24 daily flights Monday through
Wednesday, 26 on Thursdays and Fridays, 18 on Saturdays, and 20 on Sundays.
Flights are to Trenton, N.J., Philadephia, and Martha's Vineyard and
Nantucket.

Activist groups are led by Save Our Heritage, a Concord-based historic
preservation group, and ShhAir, also known as Safeguarding the Historic
Hanscom Area's Irreplaceable Assets. Their members have been picketing
Shuttle America from the beginning.

Save Our Heritage has challenged the Federal Aviation Administration in
federal courts - unsuccessfully so far - contending that commercial aviation
at Hanscom is an environmental threat to area landmarks such as the Minute
Man National Historical Park.

A draft of the 2005-2010 report will be submitted to the environmental
affairs office on either June 30 or July 15, said Richard Walsh, a Massport
spokesman. Then there will be a public comment period until Oct. 15. In
September and early October, public hearings will be held on the draft
document in the four communities.

Once the public comment period is over, a certificate will be issued to
Massport, spelling out any remedial measures that need to be taken at
Hanscom to protect the environment.

Meanwhile, Boston-Maine Airways is set to begin serving Hanscom on Friday
with one round trip a day to Martha's Vineyard, said Dan Fortnam, marketing
vice president of the Portsmouth, N.H.-based carrier.

Then from July 29 to Sept. 4, the airline will have three round trips a day
between Hanscom and Martha's Vineyard, said Fortman, adding that beginning
Sept. 5, there will be two daily round trips to Westchester County Airport
in White Plains, N.Y.

Because of spotty demand, Shuttle America pulled out of White Plains on
April 17, only two days after it launched the service.

Poor demand was also the reason Boston-Maine recently scrapped plans to
offer five round trips a day, also beginning June 28, between Bedford and
Newark, N.J., Fortnam said. ''There was just no money in doing that,'' he
said.


This story ran on page N1 of the Boston Globe on 6/23/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.