Airport News
The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) and its partners are making a series of changes at Boston Logan International Airport this month designed to make navigating the airport easier for travellers.
Throughout September and in advance of the opening of the new US$310m (£200m) Rental Car Centre (RCC), Massport will use new colour-coded signage in the terminals to direct passengers to new terminal curb assignments that will improve traffic flow and get passengers to their destinations faster.
“The curb changes and the new rental car facility are proactive environmentally friendly improvements that will simplify movement through the terminals,” said chairman of the Massport Board and transportation secretary Richard Davey. “I am pleased to know that travellers to and from Boston Logan will not have to look far for sustainable, high occupancy travel options, like the MBTA system.”
As part of the curb changes to promote high occupancy vehicle use, stops for the airport’s Silver Line and Blue Line shuttle buses will be closer together and in the middle of the terminal curb. Overhead countdown clocks will tell passengers when the next bus is arriving. Changes will also be made at the curb area of the airport MBTA Station on the Blue Line on 25 September to coincide with the opening of the RCC.
Digital signage inside the terminals, already in place in Terminal C and parts of Terminal B, are to be rolled out airport-wide in the months to come. This will also tell passengers when the next bus is and where to pick it up. New colour-coded signage will direct passengers to the transportation mode they desire.
Some 20 extra staff in brightly coloured “Ask Me’’ shirts will be in the terminals and on the curbs to assist passengers. The changes will be phased in – the first phase started yesterday (4 September) at Terminal A and will end with Terminal C on 20 September.
“Logan is ranked as one of the nation’s easiest airports to ‘breeze through’ and we want to make sure that continues at the curb,’’ said Thomas Glynn, Massport CEO. “The changes at the curb, the improved signage, and the passenger screening will all make getting through Logan even easier.’’
To improve the screening process, the TSA at Boston Logan is using real-time threat assessments to direct additional passengers to the TSA PreCheck lane where certain familiar routines are waived, such as removing shoes and laptops from cases. The programme is currently in use in Terminal A, Terminal C and in the American side of Terminal B.
Over the past decade, the airport spent US$4.5bn (£2.9bn) on a modernisation programme that includes new terminals, public transportation access, parking facilities, roadways and airport concessions.