Delay-Plagued Logan Airport Feels Winds Of Change
<B> Delay-Plagued Logan Airport Feels Winds Of Change</B>
By Bob Curley
Despite strong opposition from neighborhood groups, Massport, the state transportation agency that runs Boston Logan Airport, is pressing forward with a delay-reduction program centered on construction of a new, unidirectional runway that will permit 75,000 more flights a year and more equally distribute air traffic over local communities.
Tom Kinton, director of aviation for Massport, said the new commuter aircraft runway would help address the leading causes of delays at Logan: wind and weather. Because of its layout, Logan's capacity drops sharply on days when a strong northwest wind blows. Under normal weather conditions, the airport's three runways can handle 120 takeoffs and landings per hour. But when northwest wind conditions force closure of one or two of these runways, capacity drops to as little as 60 operations per hour.
"Wind delays, which occur even when the weather is clear, are a problem that the public does not understand, and that gives the airport a bad rap," said Kinton. So does the fact that Logan experienced more than 120,000 hours of delays in 1998, making it the sixth worst among the nation's airports.
The proposed 5,000-ft. runway would give Logan a second runway capable of operating in northwest wind conditions, reducing taxiway and holding pattern delays on windy days up to 90 percent. The added capacity also should cut overall delays by 20 to 25 percent annually.
Massport has proposed building a centerfield taxiway at Logan to reduce congestion. Another proposed change, reducing aircraft approach minimums (the point at which a pilot must decide whether to abort a landing) to industry standards also is aimed at cutting delays, as well as increasing operational flexibility and safety.
The New England Business Travelers Association this spring officially endorsed the Massport plan, and other business and travel groups also have given the project their blessing. But approval is far from assured.
Sensitive to concerns about noisy neighborhood overflights and confronted with a court injunction that has prevented construction of a new runway for the past 27 years, Massport stressed that all takeoffs and landings from the new runway will be over water. And Kinton and other officials argued that the improvements would spread out noise from overflights more evenly among Boston's neighborhoods. Meanwhile, many community leaders, particularly in the new South Boston Seaport District, have objected strenuously to the plan.
Steven Hollinger of the Seaport Alliance for a Neighborhood Design to Massachusetts Environmental Protection Agency, said, "The success of the South Boston Seaport District, largely a residential and pedestrian-focused concept, will be in its ability to evolve as a mixed-use district for living and working, not as a pedestrian-unfriendly environment with planes roaring 500 to 600 feet overhead."
Some critics said Logan would be better served by more strictly regulating supply and demand, by increasing ticket prices during peak hours. However, Kinton said that such a policy would have only a small impact on reducing delays. "Peak-hour pricing is a tool used when airlines oversubscribe an airport. That's not the case today at Logan." Raising prices also would hurt small, local airlines, he said.
New England BTA president Gary Polito said that his group's endorsement of the Massport plan was hardly a slam-dunk, since many members live in communities that are affected by the proposed changes.
"Strictly from a business perspective, however, it made great sense," he said. "All of these companies pour millions of dollars through that airport, and anything that will alleviate congestion is a benefit."
Besides the local business, tourism and labor communities, Massachusetts Governor Paul Cellucci has endorsed the Massport plan. On the other hand, both state and federal legislators representing neighborhoods around the airport are moving to block the project by imposing restrictive legislation.