Hanscom off Boston-Maine's flight plan
Shuttle America restarts NYC flights

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent, 2/17/2002

BEDFORD - As Shuttle America resumed service last Monday from Hanscom Field to New York's LaGuardia Airport, Boston-Maine Airways said Hansom is off its radar screen ''indefinitely'' and that it is firming up schedules for other regions.

Shuttle America, which operates as US Airways Express, got off to a shaky restart last week, canceling two of six round trips on Monday and three round trips on Tuesday.

Mark Cestari, spokesman for the Windsor Locks, Conn.-based commuter airline, attributed operational difficulties to snowy and windy conditions the first day and delays in getting a new 33-seat Saab aircraft into service the following day.

As a result, ''the loads have been light,'' he said, referring to the number of passengers traveling between Hanscom and New York City. He declined to say how many customers there were the first two days. ''But business travel is always slow in January and February,'' he said.

Anna Winter, head of Save Our Heritage, a Concord-based historic preservation group that has been battling Shuttle America since it began serving Hanscom in September 1999, said, ''We had more picketers on Feb. 11 than Shuttle America had passengers to LaGuardia.''

The airline initially served LaGuardia from Nov. 1, 2000, to April 15 of last year, when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The airline is now emerging from bankruptcy under the aegis of Wexford Capital LLC, a private equity company with offices in Greenwich, Conn.

And Shuttle America is not letting short-term operational problems get in the way of charting new territory, Cestari said, confirming previous reports that the airline had begun serving four cities from Pittsburgh on Feb. 4.

There are now 30 operations a day between Pittsburgh and Cleveland, Toledo, Lynchburg, Va., and Williamsport, Pa., he said, adding that those flights are also under the banner of US Airways Express. Shuttle America has a marketing agreement with US Airways for Hanscom and Pittsburgh operations.

''We'll be announcing soon another round of cities that we'll start serving in April,'' Cestari said.

Meanwhile, Boston-Maine Airways, an affiliate of Portsmouth, N.H.-based Pan American Airways, is moving in other directions, having decided not to comply with additional requirements requested by the Massachusetts Port Authority for serving Hanscom Field. Massport owns and operates the airfield.

''It's not practical for us to go through any more steps at Hanscom when there are other markets to serve,'' said Dan Fortnam, Boston-Maine's marketing vice president.

Last month, Thomas J. Kinton Jr., Massport's acting executive director, informed Boston-Maine that, among other things, it would have to conduct an environmental impact study based on its plans for introducing service this spring from Hanscom to Atlantic City, N.J., and Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

Triggering Kinton's request is a new agency policy aimed at any airline whose schedule would push the number of daily commercial operations at Hanscom over 48, a limit mandated by a 1995 environmental report.

With its New York flights and planned operations to White Plains, N.Y., beginning March 4, Shuttle America is gearing up for 46 flights a day. It now also offers seven round trips a day to Trenton, N.J., and five round trips daily to Philadelphia.

Boston-Maine, which received its operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration on Dec. 20, 2001, currently has 14 flights a day between three cities in Maryland.

There is no reason to respond to Kinton's request for an environmental impact study, Fortnam said.

''We now have a new lineup card,'' he said, noting that the airline expects to launch service from Portsmouth, March 4, to Atlantic City and White Plains, and then add three Florida cities, Clearwater, Sanford, and Naples, to the manifest at the end of April.

Fortnam said service to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket will likely get going in mid-May from Portsmouth and possibly Worcester, where the airport is operated by Massport for the city.

Massport has said previously it would welcome Boston-Maine to Worcester. Pan Am already serves the airport.

This story ran on page N7 of the Boston Globe on 2/17/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
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