Sceptre pulls plug on Boston

By Ray O’Hanlon

In yet another sign of retrenchment in the Irish American travel industry, Sceptre Charters, the largest charter company serving the Irish tourist market, has closed its office in Boston.

The Boston closure follows the earlier decision by Rockville Centre, Long Island-based Sceptre to shut down its Chicago office in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

“The closure of the Boston office is part of our consolidation plan. We are moving to a bigger office building in Rockville Centre,” Chris Accomando of Sceptre said this week.

Two of the three staff members in the Boston office would be coming to work at the Long Island office, while a third would represent Sceptre “on the road,” Accomando said.

Accomando admitted that the decision to close the Boston office, which had previously been the office of Evergreen Travel, had been a difficult one given its long history serving the Irish community in the city.

The timing was unfortunate, he said.

But, he added, the situation had come to the point where 95 percent of the business in the Boston office was being done over the phone.

“This is a messy time in the travel business,” he said.

Sceptre and Evergreen merged operations only in April of last year. Bert Accomando, president of Sceptre, said at the time that Sceptre was “thrilled” to team up with Evergreen as it would mean “a very strong presence in the Boston area.”

Chris Accomando said that Sceptre, which has been serving the Irish market since 1980, is still intent on an aggressive sales and marketing policy aimed at flying more people from the U.S. to Ireland.

“We’re Aer Lingus’ biggest producer. We have plans to grow in 2003,” he said.