John Vitagliano is a former 14-year member of the Massport board and former Boston Transportation Commissioner.
Rhode Island’s T.F. Green Airport recently won Travel + Leisure Magazine’s prestigious “Best Airport in America” award, with one voter writing it was “easy to get to, easy to park, [and] easy to navigate.” Perhaps it’s time to consider the development of a regional airport system. Three airports — Boston’s Logan Airport, T.F. Green, and New Hampshire’s Manchester Airport — could operate cooperatively to serve the air transportation requirements of the region, without overburdening any individual airport.
The three airports currently operate independently and competitively, with air service policies influenced by the financial bottom lines of each airport rather than by the objective transportation needs of the region. Logan is bursting at the seams, with airside and groundside systems often operating at and beyond peak capacity.
In fiscal 2025, Logan served 44 million passengers, a 5 percent increase over fiscal 2024 and the highest ever. The consequential environmental impacts are severe; Logan generates 15 tons of harmful pollutants daily, much of it impacting the airport’s environmental justice community abutters. The airport noise levels significantly affect the quality-of-life of thousands of local residents.
A feasible model for the organization could be the New York-New Jersey Port Authority Compact of 1921, which successfully operates three major regional airports (John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International, and LaGuardia) as well as two smaller general aviation airports. The governance of the authority consists of six commissioners from each state. A comparable approach would work for a New England regional airport system, based on appropriate representation from the three participating states.
The creation of such a unified regional airport system would require bold political leadership from the three states, with Massachusetts taking the lead, primarily because the partnership would relieve overdependence on Logan and Massachusetts would benefit from its enhanced efficiency. Logan’s proximity to Boston’s central business district was once considered essential to the local economy, but that concept has been largely discarded.
For example, the former Denver airport at Stapleton Field was located only 3 miles from downtown, long viewed as a significant factor in Denver’s rapid economic growth. But, as with Logan, that very proximity became a source of intense community environmental impacts and congested ground transportation systems, to the point where additional airport expansion to accommodate increased air travel demand was infeasible. By the 1980s plans were underway to replace Stapleton.
The Colorado General Assembly initiated a plan to identify and acquire a site to construct a new airport in 1985, culminating in the opening of Denver International Airport in 1995. Stapleton was decommissioned. Denver’s airport is now located 23 miles from downtown but connected with highway and rail transit, and Denver’s economy has continued to thrive.
The success of the Denver experience bodes well for a New England regional airport system, not because of the availability of 34,000 acres to construct a new airport from scratch (there isn’t) but because of the availability of a suitable alternative to today’s overburdened Logan Airport in the form of Green and Manchester airports to function not just as reliever airports for Logan but also as primary airports in their own right.
As Denver and other new airports have demonstrated, transit connectivity to downtown is necessary for effective operations. T.F. Green is currently served by MBTA commuter rail to either Providence or Boston. Manchester Airport is easily accessible to Boston’s North Shore communities while Green is convenient to Boston’s South Shore communities. Both airports are connected to Boston by intercity bus and trains. A regional airport system would provide the basis for significant enhancement of all transit connectivity modes. Massport’s commendable efforts to optimize Worcester Airport’s air service potential have clearly demonstrated that Worcester is best suited as a general aviation airport, due to airside and groundside constraints.
Major airlines such as United and Delta are predicting continued future growth at Logan, and Massport’s own 10- to 15-year future planning horizon data for Logan predict a 48 percent increase in passengers and a 31 percent increase in flights, all through today’s extremely limited facilities. A worrisome thought.
New England and Greater Boston’s economic reliance on Logan Airport is economically constraining and environmentally pernicious. New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts should join forces to create a regional air transportation system.