Boston, Providence or Manchester NH: which airport has your nonstop?

If you live anywhere between Rhode Island and southern New Hampshire, you have three airline airports within reach: Boston Logan (BOS), Rhode Island T.F. Green International in Warwick, just outside Providence (PVD), and Manchester-Boston Regional in New Hampshire (MHT). The usual advice is "just go to Logan". Sometimes that is right. Often it costs you a long drive and an expensive garage for a flight you could have caught closer to home.

This comparison is built from flights we actually saw operate between 16 September and 16 October 2026, using flight records from AeroDataBox. It is a 30-day snapshot of what really flew, not a list of announced routes. You can explore each airport on a map: Boston, Providence and Manchester.

The short answer

Counting only routes flown by scheduled passenger airlines at least nine times in the window (roughly twice a week or more):

• Boston Logan: 128 nonstop destinations, 108 of them flown every day of the week. 47 are in 30 other countries and territories, plus San Juan and St. Thomas.
• Providence: 34 destinations, 21 flown daily, all in the mainland US. Add one weekly international flight to Cabo Verde (more on that below).
• Manchester: 13 destinations, 8 flown daily, all in the mainland US.

In flights, Logan is in a different league: we counted 19,995 departures from BOS in the window, against 2,462 from PVD and 1,186 from MHT. Those totals include private jets, which are common at all three airports.

So for Europe, Asia, the West Coast or the islands off Cape Cod, the answer is Logan. For the big East Coast and Midwest hubs, Providence and Manchester do the job with far less hassle. And Providence has a handful of routes Logan does not fly at all.

The busiest routes from each airport

Counts are the number of flights we observed on the route in 30 days. Airlines listed are the scheduled passenger carriers we saw.

Boston Logan (BOS)

Logan's busiest international route was London Heathrow, with 244 flights.

Providence (PVD)

The furthest airline route we saw from Providence was Denver, 1,733 mi (2,789 km), on Southwest.

Manchester (MHT)

Manchester is small enough to list every airline route in full.

One detail worth noticing: Manchester had slightly more flights to Philadelphia (163) than Providence did (150). For an American Airlines connection through Philadelphia or Charlotte, MHT is a serious option, not a backup.

What the drive to Logan gets you

Every airline destination served from Manchester was also served from Logan in our window, and so were 30 of Providence's 34. Logan added 98 destinations that neither smaller airport had. The headline ones:

The furthest route we saw from Logan was Hong Kong, 7,957 mi (12,806 km), on Cathay Pacific.

If your trip is on that list, the drive is the price of a nonstop. A connection through Philadelphia or Charlotte from Providence or Manchester can still work for Europe, but you trade one long flight for two, and a missed connection on a separate ticket is your problem. Our guide to nonstop vs connecting flights covers when that trade is worth it.

What Providence has that Logan does not

This is the surprising part. In our window, Providence had four destinations flown by a scheduled airline at least nine times that Logan did not have, plus the weekly Cabo Verde flight:

The Cabo Verde flight is Providence's only international route in our data. Cabo Verde Airlines started weekly year-round service between Praia and Providence on 4 May 2026, with a Boeing 737 MAX 8, and the airline is evaluating a second weekly frequency later in 2026 (Rhode Island T.F. Green). Our records show the flight also touching Sal, so check the routing for your date when you book.

Providence also beat Logan on frequency in one place: Myrtle Beach, 34 flights from PVD against 9 from BOS. Vero Beach was a tie at 34 each. Much of that comes from Breeze Airways, which announced plans in 2024 to base up to 12 jets at Providence (The Points Guy).

Manchester had no airline destination that Logan or Providence lacked.

The drive, the train and the parking

From Providence. The drive from T.F. Green to Logan is about 56 miles (90 km) and roughly 1 hour 17 minutes with no traffic, according to Rome2Rio. Rush hour on I-95 and I-93 can add a lot to that. There is also a train: the MBTA Providence/Stoughton Line stops at T.F. Green, reached by a skywalk from the terminal (Rhode Island T.F. Green). On the current weekday timetable, eight inbound trains stop there, and the trip to South Station takes about 1 hour 24 minutes to 1 hour 34 minutes (MBTA). A new fall and winter schedule starts 26 October, so check times. From South Station, the Silver Line SL1 bus runs to the Logan terminals (MBTA).

From Manchester. The drive from MHT to Logan is about 53 miles (85 km) and roughly 1 hour 4 minutes in free-flowing traffic (Rome2Rio). The bus alternative is Boston Express, which runs from North Londonderry (Exit 5) and Salem (Exit 2) on I-93, and from Nashua on Route 3, to South Station and Logan Terminals A, B, C and E. One sample weekday trip leaves North Londonderry at 7:30 a.m. and reaches Logan at 9:15 a.m., and parking at North Londonderry is limited (Boston Express).

Parking. This is where the smaller airports win outright:

By our arithmetic, a week in Logan's Central garage at the walk-up rate is $322. The same week in Manchester's garage is $98. Massport's Logan Express lots are the cheapest way to park for Logan, but you need to live near one of them for that to help.

Reading the frequencies

Divide a 30-day count by about four for a weekly frequency: 4 flights is about once a week, 9 is about twice, 30 or more is daily. Our window runs from mid-September to mid-October, which is shoulder season. Several Providence and Manchester routes to the Carolinas and Florida ran only a few times a week. Florida leisure routes often change frequency with the seasons, so a low count in October does not tell you much about February. Treat any route under 30 flights as "check the airline's schedule for your dates".

The daily routes are different. Every route in the Boston and Providence tables above, and the top eight in the Manchester table, flew on all seven days of the week. Those are the safest bets in any month.

Who should not bother driving to Logan

• You are going to a hub. Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit and Orlando all had daily flights from Providence, and most from Manchester too. Driving an extra hour to Logan for the same city rarely makes sense, unless Logan's fare is much lower once you add parking.
• You live near the smaller airport and travel with a car. At $14 a day in Manchester against $46 at Logan's garages, a one-week trip saves you over $200 in parking alone.
• You are flying Breeze or to Cabo Verde. Several of these routes do not exist at Logan at all.
• Your flight leaves early. A 6 a.m. departure from Logan means leaving southern New Hampshire or Rhode Island around 4 a.m. The first inbound train from T.F. Green reaches South Station after 7:30 a.m. on the current weekday timetable, too late for an early flight.

And who should make the drive: anyone going to Europe, Asia, the West Coast, the Caribbean or the Cape and Islands, or anyone who needs a choice of departure times through the day.

Practical tips

Search all three airports at once. Most flight search sites let you pick several departure airports. Add BOS, PVD and MHT together, then compare total cost including parking and gas. Our guide on how to find direct flights explains the method.

Count the parking before you compare fares. A $60 saving on a Logan ticket disappears after two days in the Central garage: $92 there, against $28 in Manchester's garage.

Long-haul from Logan? Plan for jet lag. Overnight flights to Europe from Boston arrive early in the morning; our jet lag guide covers what actually helps.

About this data

Flights were recorded by AeroDataBox and aggregated by us for departures from BOS, PVD and MHT between 16 September and 16 October 2026. "Flights in 30 days" counts every flight we saw on a route, not seats or passengers. Some route counts include private and business jet flights, which are common at all three airports. Our destination counts include only routes where we saw a scheduled passenger airline at least nine times, so private-jet-only routes and cargo feeder flights (Manchester has several) are excluded. Distances are great-circle calculations between airport coordinates. Most other airports on this site use older archive data, so confirm any route with the airline before you book.

Frequently asked questions

Can I fly nonstop to Europe from Providence or Manchester?

Not in our window. Neither airport had a scheduled flight to Europe. Providence's only international route was the weekly Cabo Verde Airlines flight to Praia and Sal. For Europe, Logan had 30 or more flights to over a dozen European airports, from London and Dublin to Athens and Istanbul.

Is Manchester-Boston Regional actually close to Boston?

It is about 53 miles (85 km) by road from Logan, around an hour without traffic. Despite the name, it is a separate airport in New Hampshire with its own, much smaller route list.

Which is cheaper to park at, Providence or Manchester?

Manchester. Its garage has a $14 daily maximum, while Providence's Lot D has a $29 daily maximum. Both are well below Logan's $46 garage rate.

Can I take a train from T.F. Green to Logan?

Not directly. The MBTA commuter rail runs from T.F. Green to South Station on weekdays, and from there the Silver Line SL1 bus goes to the Logan terminals. Plan on two hours or more door to door.

Which New England airport has the most nonstop routes?

Boston Logan, by a wide margin: 128 airline destinations in our window, against 34 from Providence and 13 from Manchester.