The impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus continues to be evident on the runways and hangars at Hanscom Field.
But there’s an indisputable trend toward recovery.
Amber Goodspeed, Massport airport administrative manager for Hanscom Field, briefed members of the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission on comparative flight operations during a September 15 videoconference.
Although daytime flight operations for August (11,123) increased by 8.2 percent compared to July (10,279), activity is down 12.9 percent compared to last year’s August operations (12,777).
Goodspeed reviewed the categories of flight operations to provide a detailed evaluation of August airfield activity, as compared to August of 2019:
- Local touch and go practice flights decreased 3.2 percent, from 4,759 to 4,608;
- Single-engine flights decreased 18.3 percent, to 2,913 from 3,567 down to 2913;
- Jet flights decreased 22.3 percent, from 2,368 down to 1,840;
- Helicopter flights decreased 4.5 percent, from 847 down to 809
- Turbo prop flights decreased 28.7 percent, from 780 down to 556;
- Twin-engine flights decreased 9.1 percent, from 394 down to 358.
Goodspeed also noted that night operations decreased from 2019, from 172 down to 151. Military flights, which typically average less than 1 percent of yearly flight activity at Hanscom Field, were down to 39, as compared to 62 in August of 2019.
The six air noise monitors recorded lower weighted day/night level decibel averages as compared to August of last year. There are two monitors for Bedford: one on DeAngelo Drive and another between the end of Runway 11/29 and the Shawsheen River. Air noise disturbance reports were down 40 percent for August as compared to last year (168 down to 101).
In response to a request that flight operations and noise report data be provided to commission members and the public before HFAC meetings, Goodspeed agreed to try to send the information to the Commission Chair a day before the next meeting. Currently, the Commission and residents sometimes struggle to analyze, compare, and discuss the hundreds of data points and measurements being presented during meetings.
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