Coronavirus Pandemic Forces Massport To Scale Back Logan Airport Expansion Plans
BOSTON (CBS) -- The coronavirus pandemic has forced Massport to scale back its expansion plans at Logan Airport. The five-year, $3 billion plan was cut by one-third after a board vote on Thursday.
Scrapped projects include two new parking garages and efforts to build a monorail-like system to move people between the airport and the Blue Line. Three of the seven gates for the Terminal E expansion were cut, lowering the cost of the $700 million project by $135 million.
The Logan Express bus from Back Bay and Peabody will remain suspended, and service from Braintree and Framingham will stay limited.
The travel industry has been hit hard by the pandemic. At Thursday's meeting, the board adopted a new budget for the fiscal year that anticipates $600 million in revenue. Two years ago, the budget estimated $900 million in revenue.
Passenger count at the airport is roughly 90% lower than it was a year ago. About 300 flights are heading in and out of Logan a day, up from fewer than 200 in late April, but not near the 1,200 flights the airport saw a day before the pandemic.
The scrapped projects will be revisited, but it is unclear when.
Massport expects to continue repaving Runway 9/27, which handles between 30-50% of all departures. Plans to create a new connector between Terminals B and C will continue, as well.
