Shuttle American looking away from Hanscom, toward Pittsburgh

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent, 3/3/2002

BEDFORD - After launching service to White Plains, N.Y., on March 18, Shuttle America says it will be in a holding pattern at Hanscom Field while beefing up operations in Pittsburgh.

''I don't see any major expansion at Hanscom due to our Pittsburgh operations,'' Shuttle America spokesman Mark Cestari said at last week's meeting of the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission in Bedford. ''Most of our growth this year will be external to Hanscom.''

Cestari also said for the first time publicly that the Windsor Locks, Conn.-based commuter airline ''recognizes that we have limitations'' at Hanscom. Later, he elaborated: ''The airport is in transition; its infrastructure needs improving - namely, a new terminal building - and there is community sensitivity'' to commercial aviation in towns surrounding Hanscom.

Some commission members didn't appear surprised, though, by Cestari's comments, and didn't question him about particulars. ''It could be all talk,'' Sheldon Moll, the commission chairman, said.

After being told what Cestari had said about the airline's plans to explore other markets, Anna Winter, head of Save Our Heritage, a historic preservation group, said, ''Shuttle America's move to a Pittsburgh hub is a timely move to greener pastures. In order to survive, they must cut their losses at Hanscom.''

Save Our Heritage, which has offices in Concord, has been aggressively protesting Shuttle America's presence at Hanscom since it started operations there in September 1999.

Noting that ''this is a completely different business than it was in 1999'' because of competition and financial pressures, Cestari said Shuttle America has to take advantage of ''the more routes that are now available to us to develop.''

Airline analyst Robert Mann of Port Washington, N.Y., added, ''Shuttle America flies where US Airways tells them to fly.'' Shuttle America flies under the banner of US Airways Express, a unit of Arlington, Va.-based US Airways.

Shuttle America began serving four cities from Pittsburgh on Feb. 4. There are now 48 operations daily between Pittsburgh and Cleveland, Toledo, Lynchburg, Va., and Williamsport, Pa., Cestari said.

By June, two-thirds of the airline's fleet of 18, 33-seat Saab aircraft will be based at the Pittsburgh hub, he added.

Meanwhile, the carrier will begin flying to Westchester County Airport in White Plains on March 18, with five round trips a day from Hanscom. The original departure date, March 4, was scrubbed because of ''operational problems'' that Cestari wouldn't disclose. But those problems have now been resolved, he said.

Shuttle America currently offers six round trips a day from Hanscom to New York's LaGuardia Airport, seven round trips to Trenton, N.J., and five round trips to Philadelphia. Although weather conditions this winter have caused delays, resulting in fewer passengers, ''bookings are now strong,'' Cestari said.

Shuttle America logged in 5,060 passengers in January, compared to 5,356 in December 2001, according to the Massachusetts Port Authority, owner-operator of Hanscom.

After the White Plains launch, the airline will have 46 daily operations at Hanscom, two shy of the limit mandated by a 1995 environmental report commissioned by Massport.

Cestari told airport advisory commission members Feb. 26 that the airline has ''a gentleman' s agreement'' with Massport not to exceed 48 daily operations.

Massport has awarded a $850,000 contract to Rizzo Associates of Boston to conduct a 2000-2015 Environmental Status Planning Report. It's expected that a draft of the report will be submitted to the state's Executive Office of Environmental Affairs by June 30. If that happens, then public hearings would begin in September in Bedford, Concord, Lexington, and Lincoln, Massport has said.

Portions of the Hanscom land are located in those communities.

This story ran on page W8 of the Boston Globe on 3/3/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
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