Yes, Manchester, New Hampshire Airport being tired of its jerkwater airport status has decided to become more metropolitan by changing their name to Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.
How about a little “truth in advertising”? Boston is a mere sixty miles away from that rustic little town. Being a citizen of Massachusetts, I resent New Hampshire’s “stealing” the name of Boston just to make themselves less bucolic.
Ordinarily, this would not upset me, but as anyone in New England knows, Massachusetts and New Hampshire have always enjoyed a “hate / hate” relationship. New Hampshire always makes fun of Massachusetts by calling it “Tax-achusetts”, and they brag about the fact that they have lower crime, less pollution, etc.
Terrific - they want ALL the advantages of being a rustic little state but they still want the advantages of being well-known. Hey, “Granite-Heads”, you can’t have it both ways. I wish the Boston Port Authority would fight a little stronger against this. At least Mayor Menino has let his feelings be known. He believes that Manchester airport is trying to use Boston’s name to boost declining passenger traffic.
Well New Hampshire, if you want to be like one of the “big kids”, promote your own city and just don’t steal fame and recognition from elsewhere. Develop your own state and maybe you too will get the disadvantages that come with being one of the “big kids” - crime, pollution, TAXES, etc.
Dumbass Nitwitfuck, all the major players were in favor of the name change and it is truth in advertising. Manchester is a Boston metro area airport whether you know it and like it or not. Logan is a hideously expensive and inconvenient place that many Boston area people would rather avoid.
In fact, Manchester may well not be the only Boston area airport to make this name change. Providence T.F. Green and Worcester Regional are also considering the name same type of name change to make it more clear for those that aren’t as strong with geography to know that they are viable Boston area airports.
Those of us in the Boston area are lucky to have so many airports to choose for service. We have passenger service now or starting soon out of: Logan, Providence, Manchester, Hanscom Field Bedford, and Worcester. That is a lot of airports serving Boston and it makes sense to advertise them as such for people that think different state = very far away.
BTW, both Manchester and Providence have much, much nicer, more welcoming, and user friendly airports than Boston Logan. I would be happy if they all adopted Boston’s name and renamed Logan, “Lowell Regional” or something.
As someone who’s done a minor amount of commuting down 93, I can say with conviction that Manchester is indeed in the ‘region’ of Boston. There is certainly enough commuter traffic back and forth between the two to support such a claim. Besides 60 miles isn’t really that far.
Anyone who thinks Manchester is ‘rustic’ hasn’t been there.
I make regular use of Manchester and Providence/TF Green. Logan is a bloody nightmare to get into and out of sometimes, and the parking rates are outrageous. Even using Logan Express, which cuts the hassle considerably, it’s still a big expense, and it’s still time consuming. It’s not uncommon to get cheaper flights to the same destination if you fly out of either Manchester or TF Green rather than Logan. I can drive up 93 to Manchester, park my car, walk to the terminal, and get on the plane in quite literally less time, depending on traffic, etc., than it will take me to do the same from a much shorter distance to Logan. It’s practically a wash in most circumstances, and TF Green can even be easier. Many who work and live around Beantown actively try to avoid dealing with Logan, and so it is reasonable to consider both Mancheser and TF Green “Boston” airports.
I am amused by the vitriol from both of first two posters, but I would have to say that the OP seems kind of silly. With the hassle of flight, these days, a LOT of airports are making bids to become “regional” airports in the hopes of grabbing some exrtra revenue while providing a service. Akron-Canton regional airport is doing the same thing to Cleveland/Hopkins. Given that the drive time in to Logan is probably longer for anyone North of I-90 and US-3, (even the distance is shorter for folks in Lowell, Chelmsford, etc.) and that the crowds at Logan will make the security wait longer, as well, Manchester seems to be a pretty good option for a lot of people.
I’ve flown in and out of both Manchester and Logan, and Manchester is a much more pleasant place. It’s a shorter drive (from about 20 miles west of Lowell) and a smaller, less expensive, easier to navigate airport. If Manchester wants to pull in more customers by advertising the fact that they are a Boston-region airport, more power to them. People will come for the name, and stay for the service.
By the way, I’ve lived most of my life on the MA/NH border, and I’m familiar with the hate/hate relationship that the OP refers to. I happen to like both states, though; I’m not really sure why this is something to get worked-up about.
I was at Logan a few weeks ago. I was meeting friends for dinner (one friend was flying to Europe after dinner). It was such a hassle, I would rather have driven to Providence. For dinner.
And I alsways fly out of Providence now. Southwest doesn’t even go to Logan.
Manchester is much, much, more pleasant to fly in and out of than Boston. When I worked in Andover, the standard instructions for the travel department were to use the Manchester airport by default. It’s perfectly reasonable to advertise to the rest of the country that they are close enough to Boston to use that airport as well.
Having said that, having lived in Manchester, and experienced the attitude there that all things MA are inferior, I’m really amused that they want to do this.
On a similar note, I was astonished to discover that Plattsburgh, New York, is promoting itself as “Montreal’s US Airport.” I wasn’t aware that we required a US airport.
Aww, what’s wrong with a bit of internationalism? Ryanair advertise themselves as flying to “Vienna (Bratislava) Airport”. Even the airport themselves don’t have the cheek to claim they’re in a different country.
I’m just mad that there may be more people using it! Make them go away. There’s no airport there. It’s horrible. Go to Logan, it’s a lovely ride.
I was surprised to find that Manchester Airport even existed as a commercial venue when I moved to the North Central part of MA (Grelby, sounds like we could be neighbors!). The first time I used it, probably close to 15 years ago, I was absolutely amazed after having grown up with Logan. I drove in, parked in front of the Main (and only) terminal, and walked in the front door - all in a few minutes. I’ve never looked back and use it exclusively now. It’s grown somewhat over the years - there’s now a parking garage in front of the terminal - but what a huge difference still between there and Logan.
I may have posted this before, but it’s worth repeating.
At Providence, unlike any other airport I’ve visited, they do a security check on all checked baggage. That is, they x-ray every suitcase, and they open up something like every third one.
One package that they decided to inspect was a box. It was clearly marked “Live Lobsters.” The security guard opened it up, and sure enough, it did not contain lobsters.
Nope. It contained crabs. About a dozen of them. The security guard, determined to get to the explosives on the bottom, started emptying the contents of the box. Crab by crab. She laid them on the counter. And of course, they started crawling away, and she had to chase them down.
I wish I had been eating something as I watched this, because, hey, dinner and a floor show!
GEEZ !!! I step away from my desk and come back to some unfriendly postings … oh well this is “The Pit”.
Shagnasty you seem to enjoy the ease of use of Manchester Airport ( Oops … Manchester-Boston Regional Airport and tatoo emporium). Well, perhaps New Hamphire has much more to offer you than the Bay State. Why are you sill living in Holliston, Mass? Eonwe why haven’t you made the move to Manchester as well?
Tomndebb sorry for posting a “silly” OP to use your vernacular. Do I get a warning for that? Will it prevent me from moving on to “Final Jeopardy”? When I pass “GO” will I be exempt from collecting $200?
NE Texan I’m glad you’re one of the folks who sees my point of view. Yes, the “Granite-Heads” really hate their neighbors to the South. So why would they want to change their airport name to include the dreaded “Boston”? They actually want to increase traffic to their airport? What could possibly be the rea$on?
Salem when you went to Manchester airport did it have indoor plumbing? (There was some talk they were going to have it done, but they were having problems with that “high tech” stuff ).
I’ll echo the endorsements for for Manchester. Canny travellers have been using it (and Providence, and to a lesser extent Hartford) as an alternative to Logan for quite some time now. I’ve no problem with them changing the name to reflect this fact.
I just don’t get the anger from wolf_meister. Do you really think that people in New Hampshire hate Massachusetts, as you write? Dude, honestly, I don’t think they care enough to have the passion to hate.
As for the airport: You reap what you sow, Boston.
A few years ago, Logan was heavily congested. As a way to deal with this, Massport, which runs Logan, actually paid for radio ads in the Boston market to encourage their passengers to go to TF Green and Manchester. They trumpeted how close they are. Guess what – people liked Manchester Airport’s facilities, lack of traffic, and low cost carriers. And now Manchester’s business is up, whereas Logan actually has free space.
Who’s the “rustic” sucker now? Poor poor Boston, so threatened by a small city that they make this issue into a big deal. Cry me a river. And frankly, I wonder who really cares, aside from a handful of columnists and Menino. Actually, I suspect that many of Menino’s constituents would be happier with less traffic at Logan. Perhaps Menino’s mumbles were mistranslated?
And Eonwe is 100% right that Manchester is part of the Boston region. Unless you think that the fact we have to widen roads for all the people who commute to Boston doesn’t count for anything.
I wonder if the OP will have a coronary when he discovers that the FAA’s Boston Air Traffic Control Center (aka “Boston Center”) is in Nashua, NH?
Hmmm. Maybe once, but that is really starting to fade, especially in southern NH. Rising real estate prices are forcing a lot of Bay Staters to think Granite, and we ain’t talkin’ about kitchen counter tops.
I’ve looked at property prices along 93 nawth’ve th’ boahdah, and they’re not all that different. Meanwhile, property taxes in NH are insane. Are people still moving up there?
Good grief, why all the hate for Logan? Since they opened the Ted Williams Tunnel, it’s easy to get to; if you take a bus or cab, it’ll drop you at whatever terminal you need; and if you drive, the terminals are in a circle around the parking garage so it’s not even much of a walk. And it’s just across the harbor from downtown; one of the most convenient airports of any city I know of. I fly to and from Logan with no problems at all.
I’ve been to Manchester and Providence airports. I guess they might be easier to find your way around in the first few times, but I still use Logan. Manchester is more than an hour’s drive for me, one way. I had to fly on very short notice a few years ago, and got a better deal out of Providence. The plane had trouble after takeoff and couldn’t complete the trip so we diverted to a different airport. The landed us at Logan and had another plane waiting for us.
I think there might be a trace of hypocrisy in Manchester trying to associate themselves with Boston only when it suits them, but what else is new?
Plynck, I grew up in Washington; New Hampshire is flat.
