PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Armed with grim statistics about congestion at Logan International Airport in Boston, New England governors pledged Thursday to work together to divert more travelers to regional airports.

Delays and flight cancellations at Logan are costing airlines about $150 million annually, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Amedeo Odoni said.

The share of passenger traffic at regional airports is rising, but travel through Logan is also increasing and could soon hit maximum capacity, Odoni said.

“We must strive to share this additional load with other airports in New England,” Odoni said at the governors’ second annual transportation summit.

Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Almond, Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci and Connecticut Gov. John Rowland said they will form the New England Governors Conference Committee on Transportation to address the issue.

“It’s imperative that we have an integrated regional transportation system,” Almond said. “It’s for the good of our economy and our environment.”

Many travelers already are taking advantage of smaller airports such as Rhode Island’s T.F. Green Airport, Manchester Airport in New Hampshire and Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Conn. The entry of discount carrier Southwest Airlines into New England is partly the reason why.

Dissatisfaction with Logan is another reason. The airport has about 100,000 hours of delays each year, Odoni said. The Federal Aviation Administration considers anything above 20,000 hours a concern.

Between 1996 and 1999, more than 75 percent of New England air passenger growth occurred at regional airports, Odoni said. But in the next 15 years, passenger traffic at Logan is expected to climb from the current 27 million to 37 million or more.

Odoni said improved rail and other transportation links to the smaller airports will help, but he believes airlines are the main influence on travelers and he urged state leaders to work closely with them.

“We should grease the wheels and steer the airports in the direction that is most desirable,” he said.

The governors will assign representatives to their new transportation committee to meet regularly about issues in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

“We are not in competition with each other,” Rowland said. “We are sharing our highways. We are sharing our airports.”

Taking a moment for partisan politics, Cellucci, Rowland and Almond, all Republicans, predicted President-elect Bush would support their efforts more than Vice President Al Gore would have.

“The one thing I like about Bush is that he’s a governor,” Cellucci said. “He knows what we deal with on a daily basis. I think he’ll be particularly responsive.”