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Boston Globe
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Does live music at Logan baggage claim actually make us feel better about the wait? Our critic went to find out.
'I wrote this song on my way here,' the man joked and launched into a reggae beat, cheerfully belting out one of the most famous choruses in the English language. 'Don't worry/about a thing/'Cause every little thing/gonna be alright...' Advertisement You may have heard about this -- live music at two Logan baggage claim areas this summer. It's Massport's idea to 'reduce travel stress,' according to an official announcement. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The experimental program, which runs through August, when officials will decide whether to make it an ongoing thing, has already been met with skeptical grumbles, including from The Globe's Full disclosure: This isn't my usual beat. I usually review classical music, where performances are generally staged in quieter venues with refined acoustics – hardly the case here. But I also play in two bands, I've busked with my accordion, and I do travel from time to time. I appreciate both a good bar act and the hell that can be a bad day of travel. And I wondered if those experiences might actually mesh. Advertisement On this muggy July evening at Terminal C, I have to say that it kind of worked. The musician, a guitarist named Mike Weidenfeller, strummed his way through mild uptempo covers; familiar songs seemingly meant to soothe. And he easily worked the frazzled crowd. 'Are you from Boston?' he asked a group of women passing before him with large rolling suitcases. 'Yes,' one of them replied. 'Welcome back,' he said. And then, when they said they had just come from Aruba: 'In that case, I'll say I'm sorry!' Weidenfeller jammed his way through another reggae standard, Beres Hammond's 'I Feel Good,' and a woman skipped across the terminal, her henna-red hair flying. 'It's a party now,' he said with a smile. Then something else caught his eye: 'Oh, that's a nice reunion over there.' cq A goldendoodle had spotted his 'granddad' sitting on a bench, and gone into a tail-wagging frenzy. As Weidenfeller strummed the Beatles' 'The Long and Winding Road,' the dog leaped into the man's lap and licked his face. cq It was a Kodak moment, and for the people I talked to, at least, the music added a friendly feel and helped to uncoil a little tension. 'It kind of adds a nice charm now that we're all stuck here waiting on our luggage,' said Jennifer Stacey, cq who was returning to her southern New Hampshire home after a vacation in Aruba. 'I hope it takes off.' Still, I have to wonder if the same would be true in truly trying travel circumstances – like the time I was stranded overnight in New York's John F. Kennedy Airport terminal after being forced to gate-check my carry-on between Los Angeles and Boston. The amenities included nonfunctional power outlets and arctic-blast air conditioning in rainy October. Over the PA, a soft-pop playlist including Paula Cole's 'I Don't Want to Wait,' Daniel Powter's 'Bad Day,' and Fergie's 'Big Girls Don't Cry' mocked me as I roamed the long concourse, unable to sleep through the sensory barrage. Sometimes big girls do cry. If I'd heard ' Don't worry/about a thing…' the next morning when my suitcase failed to appear on the Logan baggage carousel, I probably would have spontaneously combusted. Advertisement For musicians, playing Logan is a unique experience. The logistics of booking and scheduling performers this summer are being handled through Gigs4U, a Seattle-based agency that already books musicians at SeaTac International And Fall River-based singer-songwriter Brandon Furtado, 29, who played on the pilot program's launch day, said his set went well. 'I'm always trying to find new places to play, so that was a cool experience for me,' he Furtado is accustomed to playing in neighborhood hangouts, and at baggage claim, he found that 'people are kind of trying to get their stuff and go. Maybe you don't get as much engagement, so you have to work a little harder to acknowledge people and get their attention.' From a financial perspective, it mattered less whether people stopped to listen; the Live at Logan musicians cannot collect tips, but they receive $200 for each performance, with parking covered. cq The only tough part was playing to a largely-vacant room much of the time, Furtado said. 'There was one group of people that arrived, and it was kind of empty afterwards.' cq Advertisement One important point: not everyone in this captive audience is necessarily a traveler. As Weidenfeller played on that recent night, Security guard Pax Brown Johnson, cq of Milton, sat on a bench as she waited for her overnight shift to begin, enthusiastically greeting her co-workers as they passed by and clapping after every song Weidenfeller played. The music helped her feel more relaxed, she said, even when 'you feel so discouraged.' cq She hoped they'd bring the music to the departure level, so more people might appreciate it. Maybe she'd even be able to hear it from her station at the secure area's exit door. She'd like that, she said. In the meantime, she knew what she wanted to hear. 'Play 'Don't Worry About a Thing!'' she urged Weidenfeller. cq An hour had passed since he last played 'Three Little Birds.' No one who had heard it earlier was still around. He played it. A.Z. Madonna can be reached at
Boston Globe
17-07-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Air, cruise travel out of Boston set records
Davey and Ed Freni, Massport's aviation director, touted a suite of recent customer service improvements and milestones, pointing to a Advertisement Officials previously announced that Logan served a record 43 million passengers in calendar year 2024, more than the prior record of 42.5 million set in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted travel patterns. The 43 millionth passenger, Reagan Berry of Boston, Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up While demand continues to grow, Massport is also pursuing significant investments in the airport, including Freni said momentum appears to be continuing through the first two and a half weeks of fiscal year 2026. 'We see strong numbers,' Freni said. 'In fact, we're averaging over the forecast for July.' High demand was not limited to the skies above Boston. Massport officials also said Thursday that the Flynn Cruiseport served 465,000 passengers in fiscal 2025, 22 percent more than in fiscal 2024 and 5 percent more than the quasi-public agency projected in its budget. Advertisement That, too, was a 'record-breaking fiscal year season,' according to Massport Port Director Lauren Gleason. She added that officials expect a 'strong summer' ahead. Worcester Regional Airport did not experience a similar trend. Freni said passenger volumes were about 2 percent lower there than the prior fiscal year. His presentation described 'increasing competition from ultra low-cost carriers at alternative airports' as a possible factor. Massport leaders have been Conley Terminal, the major marine port in South Boston, ended the fiscal year with about 137,000 containers processed, which Gleason said was 'within 2 percent of our budget.' 'This year faced a number of challenges for our container shipping business,' she said, referencing the closure of the Suez Canal and tariff uncertainty. 'But despite that, our shipping remains strong from over 40 different global weekly connections that we provide through Conley Container Terminal.' Davey said his team is working to close the books on fiscal year 2025 and plans to present a final update in September, but he forecast that the outlook is 'incredibly healthy.'
Boston Globe
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Live tunes at Logan: music to their ears or a grating on their nerves?
Advertisement Jim Farrell Harvard Christopher Muther's commentary set off a spirited debate among Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up What a grump! Boston has always been known as a big music city, so why not show it off? In New Orleans, jazz musicians often play in the airport there to welcome passengers. It gives off the vibe of the city, so why not try it in Boston? (What_Cheer) If you can't deal with 5 minutes of music while waiting for your luggage, you've got problems. Deal with it. (MyThoughtsExactly) As long as they play 'Sweet Caroline' ... at least twice. (timfromvt) If they tapped a keg at baggage claim, they'd really be on to something. (Burncoatgirl) Muther is absolutely correct. Travel is stressful and tiring, and the last thing we need is loud music while we are on our cellphones setting up our rides home and waiting endlessly for the bags to arrive. (Richard D) Advertisement Who doesn't love 'foreground' music? :) (JAGjr) Flew into Colorado Springs a few months ago and they had two therapy dogs at baggage claim. People could pet them. There were a ton of smiles in the crowd. Now that's a way to lighten things up! (10KWords) When will the loud-music-restaurant trend be done? Not any time soon, it seems, with Massport piling on. I love music, but not every kind of music. When you don't give us a choice, it's just another overload the nervous system has to manage in an increasingly noisy, overstimulated world. (BostheBest) Serious overload to anyone with hearing issues who is straining to hear the garbled announcements. I'm thinking of submitting a reasonable accommodations request to Massport to have my luggage delivered to a noise-free carousel. (Threedecker) I have not heard this at Logan yet, but I have passed through Nashville and they have bands spread out over the airport, and I think it works very well. I am not a country and western fan, but I would have to say I love the environment. I hope it can work as well here. (user_4413090) Nashville and Austin have musicians at departure concourses, where travelers are killing time waiting to board their flights. Much different experience than baggage claim. (localjake) Live music seems like the wrong vibe for Logan Airport. No one is expecting warm hospitality from strangers in Boston (not the Boston way). (aksynth) What Logan needs is cats. (GrayAlleyCat)
Boston Globe
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Live music while waiting for your luggage at Logan? Pass the Advil, please.
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Everyone enjoys live music, and if we can make the experience of waiting for your luggage a little better, that's a win,' Massport CEO Rich Davey said at a press conference announcing the new program. Advertisement Let me add a quick disclaimer to Davey's statement. Not everyone enjoys live music, especially if they've just gotten off a flight and want to get their suitcase and hightail it out of Logan with minimal obstacles. For some folks, the noise of the passengers and the carousel announcements is too much already. I have the utmost respect for musicians, but that respect erodes when I'm trying to listen to a podcast or catch up on reading, and a subway busker is drumming like it's opening night at 'Stomp.' The worst audience to be a part of is a captive audience. Advertisement I applaud the intention behind The airport experience is already stressful, no matter which airport you're talking about. When passengers arrive, there's the stress of transport, check-in, security, and making it to the gate on time. Once they land, there are new obstacles, such as 'Will my suitcase be here?' and 'Which major highways are closed this weekend?' Now, we'll have 'I hope I packed my earplugs in case that Berklee jazz-fusion harpsichordist is playing at the baggage carousel.' If I were a more glib and uncaring person, I would suggest that the musicians perform on the tarmac to inspire the luggage handlers to move faster. Perhaps the musicians could even help out the baggage handlers with some of the labor. Getting luggage faster rather than listening to music while waiting for it would truly enhance the passenger experience. My advice for the powers that be at Logan is that instead of adding sounds — no matter what they are — to the airport, they should try to eliminate them. A campaign to get people to use headphones or take calls off speakerphones would certainly help enhance the passenger experience. If passengers are looking for music, let them pop in their earbuds and enjoy a song of their choosing. Advertisement Christopher Muther can be reached at
CBS News
01-07-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Logan Airport in Boston raises Uber, Lyft fees and parking rates
Logan Airport in Boston has raised its fees for taking an Uber or Lyft to catch a flight, as well as the cost of parking in a garage. The new prices went into effect Tuesday. It will now cost an extra $5.50 each way for Uber and Lyft passengers, up from the previous fee of $3.25. Earlier this year, Massport proposed hiking the fee to $7.50 before a compromise was reached. As part of the deal, passengers can now be dropped off right in front of the terminal doors, instead of at a designated spot in the garage. The deal also gives Uber and Lyft drivers more time to accept pickup requests after making an airport drop-off, calls for more shared ride opportunities and requires the companies to launch a shuttle service to Logan. Massport CEO Rich Davey said at the time that the compromise would allow for "new, cheaper ways to get to Boston Logan," while also addressing traffic issues. Logan Airport parking prices Garage parking is also more expensive at Logan now. The maximum price to park at the airport's main garage is now $46 daily, up from 41 a day. Parking in the economy garage is now $37 a day, up from $32. Getting to Logan Airport Travelers can take the MBTA's Blue Line to the airport, or take the free Silver Line from South Station. The Logan Express bus is available from Braintree, Danvers, Framingham and Woburn for $9 each way, with parking for $7 a day. There's also a Logan Express from Back Bay for $3 to the airport, with a free ride back.
