Lowell Sun
Tuesday, January 15, 2001

Shuttle America adds Hanscom flights to White Plains, N.Y.

By VANESSA HUGHES
Sun Staff

BEDFORD -- Shuttle America plans to operate daily flights to New York's Westchester County Airport, a move that is irking local activists fighting to limit commercial flights out of Bedford's Hanscom Field.

US Airways is selling tickets for five daily flights to be operated by Shuttle America out of Hanscom, scheduled to start March 3. Flights will land at the airfield in suburban White Plains, N.Y.

Flights from Logan airport to White Plains had been operated by Continental Express prior to Sept. 11 but were ceased after the attacks, leaving a service void for those customers, said Mark Cestari, a Shuttle America spokesman.

Shuttle America also serves Trenton, N.J., and Philadelphia, with plans to operate at LaGuardia Airport in New York.

"The alternative airport concept is catching on with customers who are attracted to the easy check-in and quick boarding at smaller airports," Cestari said. "The product we are offering is well-positioned."

But while additional flights mean more business for Shuttle America, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April, others are not pleased with the news.

Save Our Heritage, a preservation group working to limit operations at Hanscom, drafted a letter yesterday to the Federal Aviation Administration citing Shuttle America's new plans as another reason to assess the historical and environmental impacts that Hanscom expansion could have on the area.

The airfield borders Lexington, Concord, Bedford and Lincoln. SOH was formed to protect the area -- known as the birthplace of the American Revolution --from gradual destruction due to noise, pollution and development.

By expanding piecemeal, the airport has been able to avoid environmental and historical impact assessments, said Marty Pepper Aisenberg, projects director at SOH. But combined, plans for more services at Hanscom constitute an expansion composed of successive steps, which by law, the FAA is required to assess before permitting, he said.

"The FAA needs to look at the whole picture and say obviously there is going to be a rapid expansion of flights at this airport. The FAA cannot just look at each piece as it happens," he said.

Shuttle America was also to resume flights to LaGuardia airport last weekend, but said those operations will be postponed until Feb. 11. Cestari said the delay is due to problems securing a gate at LaGuardia. In addition, Boston-Maine Airways Corp. has proposed operations at Hanscom.

"Now we have LaGuardia flights going forward, plus Boston and Maine's, plus the new flights to Westchester," Pepper Aisenberg said. "Our point is there is constant incremental growth here."

Plans for LaGuardia and Westchester flights will bring the daily flight total to a new high of 46, according to SOH.

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