Flying out of Logan has never been more popular. Boston’s international airport served a record 43.5 million passengers in 2024.
All that traffic is good news for Massport, the quasi-public entity that oversees Logan, but it also means longer wait times for travelers — on the road heading into the airport, checking their bags and going through security.
Now, Massport leaders have an idea to serve even more passengers while also cutting down on delays: so-called remote terminals.
“This is really cool,” Massport CEO Rich Davey said during an event at the Boston Chamber of Commerce Thursday. “Not really anyone in the country does this.”
According to Davey, the concept is simple. Everything passengers normally do before entering the terminal would happen at a remote facility, miles away from the airport.
“You would be able to park, or get dropped off; go through TSA security; check your bag; get on a sterile bus; and then be dropped off on the sterile side of the airport,” he said.
The proposal is still in early stages, but Davey said that Massport officials hope to launch a pilot program late next year. He said the agency hasn’t determined a location for the pilot yet but floated Framingham and Braintree as possibilities.
Details are scant — like how many travelers would use the terminal on a daily basis, or the cost associated with the proposal. A spokesperson for Massport declined to provide any more information. “The details have not been fully worked out yet, so we’re not able to say more at this time,” Massport’s Jennifer Mehigan said in a statement.
Leaders in Braintree did not respond to a request for comment on the proposal.
In Framingham, Massport’s Davey had a brief discussion with Mayor Charles Sisitsky about the potential pilot in December 2024, according to Framingham’s public information officer Susan Petroni, though there “has been no formal discussion.”
Sisitsky, himself, says he’s all for the idea.
“I would be excited to see Framingham serve as a pilot for a remote terminal,” he told GBH News by email. “Allowing our residents, families, and business travelers to complete check-in and security here in Framingham, instead of having to do it with everyone travelling at Logan Airport, would be a valuable advantage for our community.”
The idea of remote terminals has been around for more than half a century, according to Matthew Coogan, a transportation consultant who formerly served as the director of the New England Transportation Institute.
“The first one was in Brussels for the World’s Fair in 1958,” he said. “I went to check my bags there in 1959, when I was 12, and I’ve been studying it ever since.”
Coogan said that several other airports have built remote terminals in the years since, including in London, Hong Kong and Vienna. In the 1980s, when Coogan served as undersecretary of transportation for Gov. Michael Dukakis, he proposed one in Boston.
The idea didn’t pan out, but Coogan said he’s thrilled to hear that Massport is now planning to give it a try. He expects there will be regulatory hurdles and security questions surrounding remote TSA checks and the secure transportation of passengers to terminals.
But Coogan believes remote terminals will ultimately give travelers a more streamlined — and less stressful — experience than the traditional check-in process.
“The question is, how much do you want to serve the passenger?” he said. “If you really wanna serve the passenger, you should do it.”
