Starting June 1 it becomes possible for Delta and JetBlue passengers to check in at Boston’s Logan airport, and even clear security, without actually going to the Boston airport.
Landline, which is known for replacing short flights with buses (especially but not only with American Airlines in Philadelphia and at Chicago O’Hare) has opened up a new check-in facility in Framingham, Massachusetts (at 19 Flutie Pass, Framingham MA)that passengers can treat as the front door to the airport.
They park for a lot less than the garage at Logan, drop bags and go through TSA, and then they take a bus that drops them off past security at the airport.
This is the first remote airport screening facility in North America. And it’s an interesting way for passengers to avoid congested airport processes, and airports to avoid packed headhouses as they grow. There’s no reason that there cannot be several of these for a single major hub airport, and in fact they’re already planning for another one of these in Braintree.
Landlines CEO David Sunde explains,
People love traveling — they just hate everything it takes to get there. The traffic, the parking, the lines, the chaos — all of those little uncertainties add up to a real headache before you ever reach your seat. We built Landline to fix that. With the Framingham facility, we’re not just building a bigger front door to Logan — we’re building a new one, closer to where people actually live. Massport had the vision to see that the airport experience doesn’t need to be confined to a single footprint anymore, and together we’re taking the first step toward a future where the airport is directly connected to the communities it serves.
They’re offering 8 bus departures a day between this facility and Boston Logan to start, with service departing on the hour. Frequency is expected to increase as demand grows. The drive takes 40 minutes in the early morning, and up to 1:20 during rush hour. There are two drop-off locations at the airport:
- Terminal A gate A18 near Delta flights
- Terminal C gate C8 near JetBlue
Cost:
- The cost for a bus ride is $9 per adult with children under 18 free
- Parking is available (limited) at $29 per day, compared to an undiscounted $37 – $49 at Logan airport.
You aren’t going to want to show up in Framingham too early – you’ll find only seating, restrooms, vending machines, and water in terms of amenities.
And you’re still going to deal with the drive to the airport, but someone else drives and you avoid the chaos of Boston’s airport pre-security. Landline recommends arriving 45 minutes ahead of scheduled bus departure time, and that’s when luggage check-in closes (TSA closes 35 minutes prior to departure). Each bus holds 55 passengers.
This takes the Landline model where people do check-in and bag drop at a regional airport, clear security and then travel by bus to their major airport connection as though the bus were a plane. American has this in Philadelphia and Chicago O’Hare.
In-town check-in has existed for decades, but almost none of it lets the passenger clear security downtown, check their bags, and arrive airside. Mostly these locations just offer a boarding pass and bag drop. You may be familiar doing it at Hong Kong Airport Express, KL Sentral, Taipei Main Station, Vienna CAT, and Dubai city check-in.
Emirates offers in-home check-in but that just sends an agent to your house to collect your bags and give you a boarding pass. It doesn’t eliminate airport security screening.
Some, like Hong Kong’s Macau ferry transfer, offer immigration clearance. On arrival at the Hong Kong airport from Macau passengers stay inside the restricted-transfer system but it is not the same as clearing passenger security at a downtown terminal and then riding sterile transport to the airport. There’s still security at the Hong Kong SkyPier.
Lufthansa tested first class home-to-aircraft bypassing the terminal entirely, but that was over a year ago and it hasn’t become a commercial reality. It also wouldn’t have been available at scale the way this is.
Real progress, of course, will be when short takeoff and landing aircraft arrive in 3-4 years and we can move beyond in-town check-in, skipping the traditional airport entirely. There’s no need for long runways, a large parking lot and doublewide trailer are fine. And distributing air traffic away from airports could ease congestion as well.
It’s creative, affordable, and gets the job done? For shorter distances to/from major metro areas, seems like a fine idea. Let’s use everything available in our tool kit from buses to trains, too.
And how, exactly, is the cordon sanitaire maintained on the bus? Are there security personnel on each trip? How are these buses screened before each day’s service?
This seems like a great way to save money on EAS flights AND those EAS cities could have the “terminal” near the center of town and be walkable/busable for many more people than how difficult is often is to get to the small airport without a car.
I’m not sure who would want to use, but it’s definitely not me. Seems like a waste of time to arrive “45 mins before the bus leaves” considering I also will want some buffer to walk around BOS as the airport is quite large.
Seems a lot more convenient to me to just show up at the airport, but hey, I’m sure this will tickle somebody’s fancy, and that means less crowding for those of us trying to use the airport screening!
@Denver Refugee — “cordon sanitaire…” ooh lala… so fancy! Ah, yes, Boston Logan… notorious for ‘security’… *facepalm*
Can we keep them on the bus so I don’t run the chance of having to fly with Massholes?
This is a nice idea. I might consider something like this if it were available in the DC area. They could offer first class bus seats too.
@Barry Graham — That’d actually make a lot of sense for DC to Dulles or BWI, since they are farther from the city center, or say, from Richmond to Dulles. Otherwise, Amtrak/regional rail may work better from BWI. Not sure if you were joking about First Class bus services, but in some parts of the world, they actually are quite nice (think, nearly lie-flat, plush recliners).
Did a dummy booking and parking is $7 per day, not $29
Interesting idea and I bet it has high uptake. The reason this could work is because it piggy backs off of existing bus service to the airport from the suburbs. And there’s no rail link to Boston’s airport, so if you were in Framingham, you’d have to take the T to a bus to the airport anyway. And it’s faster to drive versus taking public transport (~45m drive from Framingham versus ~1h15m with public transit).
If Uber did this somewhere with its shuttle service to LGA, it would make a killing.
Pity it’s only JetBlue and Delta. If this does well ( and I suspect it will ) I can see them rolling it out to the other shuttle points north and south of the city.
Maybe Port Authority can do this at Jamaica and Howard Beach then makes AirTran behind security.
This is a fantastic idea that I hope is successful and is more widespread around the US since there are no fast public transport options in most of the US (if they even exist).
This has to be subsidized by massport. I can’t imagine $9 is the cost of the ride – $9 is the price that Massport charges for their own shuttle every half hour from Framingham to Logan: https://www.massport.com/logan-airport/getting-to-logan/logan-express/framingham
I suspect this is a trial to transition some or all of the current Massport suburban shuttles and replace them with this pre-security model. Might be worse for people with Precheck. This also underscores how far AA has fallen at BOS
I a, looking forward to trying this on one of my next trips. This bus station is halfway to Logan from my house, it sometimes makes sense to us pet the regular bus service, but for quick trips I prefer to park at the terminal. Clearing TSA in Framingham before a morning flight could actually be a timesaver, as terminal A is a full out scrum from the 4 am opening until about 9.
Peter, you can just take the Framingham Logan Express bus for $12.
@Ted – agree, that’s my point, you can still just take the bus from Framingham, they’re just offering another option that complements existing service. Folks are used to taking the bus, and this may just now save them time on the other end.
Some confusion: Parking is usually $7/day. Is the $29/day a mistake or a special fee or parking space for those utilizing this service?
More confusion: The bus costs $9/person prepaid on line. .
If one gets dropped at Jet Blue, it is in Terminal C. One could then walk to Terminal B to fly Southwest, United or American because one has effectively passed security. Terminal A does not connect to Terminals B, C, and E after security, but I don’t know about Terminals C and E.
ATL could offer this in the different suburban areas and charge double and people would use it. They desperately need relief at security.
Old idea. Check the history in NYC
The East Side Airlines Terminal
Location: 37th-38th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue.
Details: Opening in 1953, it served as a remote “city terminal” where you could check baggage, buy tickets, and board direct coaches to JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark. The terminal ended bus operations in 1984, and the building was later repurposed into residential spaces.
Wikipedia
Pan Am Building (MetLife Building) Remote Transport
Rather than buses, the iconic Pan Am Building (now the MetLife Building) featured a dedicated heliport to physically connect midtown to the airports:
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