November 29, 2023.   Logan Lament.

Over the last ten or twelve years, no U.S. airport that has seen more long-haul growth than my hometown airport, Boston’s Logan International. Not that long ago, we had a handful of European routes, some service to the Caribbean, and that’s about it.

How things have changed. Today you can fly nonstop from Boston to Europe, Asia, South America and the Middle East. Pretty much all of the big global players are here, from Emirates to Turkish to Korean. Delta alone has direct flights to nine transatlantic cities, with more planned.

The downside to all of this expansion has been overcrowding and a lack of gates. The only terminal with Customs and Immigration facilities is terminal E, which until recently had fewer than a dozen jet bridges. At the height of summer crowds were unbearable, and long delays were common as planes had to be jockeyed back and forth between the gates and remote parking stands.

And so, when ground was broken for a badly needed terminal E expansion, many of us were excited.

Well, that project is now complete, and I’m sad to say I’m a little underwhelmed. Or confused at any rate. After many months and hundreds of millions of dollars, what we got is only four additional gates.

The new superstructure is enormous. The addition alone is nearly the length of the original building (which, itself, was significantly expanded about twenty years ago). This I imagine — or, I hope — will go a long way towards thinning out those evening departure crowds.

That’s great, but only four gates? With airlines planning more new flights as we speak (just this week Hainan Airlines relaunched its suspended Boston-Beijing service), how much of terminal E’s parking snarl is this going to relieve, exactly?

And no expansion to the Immigration lobby? When I was there a few weeks ago the passport lines were two hours long.

What am I missing? Hopefully this isn’t the usual Boston boondoggle: lots of expensive construction for not a lot of fix.

And, yes, the new extension is very… red. It looks like a spaceship, or the fender of an vintage sports car; retro and futuristic at the same time. It really gives the airport some flair, and I quite like it. I just wish it came with more gates.

Photo by the author.