The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce included construction of a new runway at Logan International Airport and building a strong regional aviation system among the Chamber's top priorities for the next year. In the Leading Industries Report released today, the Chamber cited Logan's importance to the success of the city's leading industries, including: financial services, health care, high technology, education and consulting and the visitor industry.
The report states:
Because Greater Boston's leading industries have customers throughout the United States and the world, they depend heavily on air travel. Every day, thousands fly to and from Boston to meet with customers, promote a new research service, recruit new workers, present a research paper, or attend a convention.. All five leading industries are handicapped by Greater Boston's air travel system.
As an action item for the year, the Chamber committed to work with Massport to advance the modernization of Greater Boston's air travel system by constructing runway 14/32 and expanding the role of regional airports in Worcester, MA, Providence, RI, Manchester, NH and Bedford, MA.
Logan is currently ranked the 6th most delayed airport in the country. To provide relief to the travelling public, Massport has proposed Runway 14/32, a new 5,000-foot runway with all arrivals and departures occurring over water. The runway would reduce delays up to 90% on northwest wind days, 45-55% in good weather, and 30% annually.