It's official: Massport taps Kinton as new CEO

Directors of the Massachusetts Port Authority board tapped a 30-year agency aviation professional, Thomas J. Kinton Jr., to serve as Massport's chief executive.

The appointment of Kinton, who had been serving as acting chief executive last month since Craig P. Coy resigned to take a private-sector job, drew widespread praise, including from some strong Massport critics.

"This is an excellent choice,'' said John A. Vitagliano, a Winthrop business consultant and community activitist who has battled Massport expansion plans for 30 years and was named by former governor Michael S. Dukakis to two terms on the Massport board.

Although Vitagliano is currently lobbying against Kinton-backed Massport plans for a new $200 million taxiway community critics contend will bring jet fumes and noise far closer to Winthrop and Orient Heights, Vitagliano said, "Tom's a first-rate manager and extraordinarily knowledgeable. This is a step in the right direction.''

Massport's board unanimously voted to sign Kinton to a five year, $255,000-a-year contract, the same pay Coy was getting when he resigned to take a senior executive position with L-3 Communications Inc., a satellite communications and security technology company.

Kinton said he does not envision making any major changes at Massport, which runs Logan International Airport, Hanscom Airport, the Worcester airport, Boston's seaport and waterfront development parcels, and the Tobin Memorial Bridge.

"I don't believe in changing things for the sake of changing things,'' Kinton said in an interview.

Speaking to three dozen top Massport officials after they gave him a standing ovation after the vote, Kinton said: "One good thing about this is we hit the ground running. There is no learning curve. I know you, you know me, and we know what the agenda is.''

(By Peter Howe, Globe staff)