By Alex Chatfield
Editor’s note: Area residents are also gathering every Friday at the Hanscom traffic circle to protest the use of Massport-owned Hanscom Field civil airport to transfer people arrested by ICE as suspected illegal immigrants (Lincoln Squirrel, March 9, 2026).
On Wednesday morning, Aug. 5, nearly 40 people gathered around the traffic rotary at the entrance to Hanscom Field Civil Terminal in Lincoln to demonstrate their opposition to a proposed controversial private jet hangar expansion at Hanscom Field (not the adjacent Hanscom Air Force Base), which would double the private jet hangar capacity of the airport.
The proposal has been undergoing a state environmental review since 2023. Standout participants traveled from Acton, Arlington, Bedford, Cambridge, Carlisle, Concord, Lexington, Lincoln, Newton, Roslindale, Somerville, Sudbury, and Watertown. The event was held by the Coalition to Stop Private Jet Expansion at Hanscom or Anywhere (SPJE.org). Candidates Ravi Simon and Alison Leary who are running for state representative in 13th Middlesex and 10th Middlesex districts respectively, also attended.
Photo by Andy Platt.
Participants held signs and banners with hard-hitting messages directed toward morning commuters entering the Hanscom Civil Terminal parking lot, among them: “Welcome to Massport — Enjoy Your View of the Dying Earth from Your Private Jet” and “CO2 Super-emitter Private Jets: a Luxury Our Climate Can’t Afford.”
According to a 2024 independent analysis, the proposed private jet hangar expansion would add 66 to 79 additional private jets to Hanscom, generating 6,000 additional flights annually and 150,000 new tons of CO2 each year.
If the expansion goes ahead, private jet emissions at Hanscom alone are expected to cancel approximately 70% of the climate gains from all solar PV ever installed in Massachusetts, which opponents say is a direct and immediate threat to hard-won efforts by towns and cities across Massachusetts to reduce their carbon footprint and combat a worsening climate crisis. For this reason, the fight to stop the immense 50-acre, nearly 500,000-square-foot expansion has transcended to statewide opposition with the engagement of 120 organizations across Massachusetts and, over 15,000 individuals who have signed a petition to Gov. Healey urging her to stop what they consider to be an indefensible expansion in the middle of a worsening climate emergency.
Photo by Will Winchell.
“This proposed expansion must be stopped,” said Andy Platt of Acton, who participated in the standout.
Though work on the old Navy hangar on the eastern portion of the proposed project site began last month, this is by special waiver from MEPA (Mass. Office of Environmental Policy) specific to that one hangar only. Regarding the remaining proposed 17 new hangars and five new underground fuel tanks, MEPA is waiting for a re-do report from the developers which would replace a previous report that MEPA rejected in 2024 (see this Boston Globe article). The new report is now expected no sooner than this fall. Meanwhile, the fight to stop the expansion continues to grow and protests are in full swing, say activists at the Aug. 5 standout.
More photos and video from the event can be found here. More information about this issue can be found at www.spje.org, or contact info@spje.org.
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