Tweed Development Deal Teed Up For Final Vote

Apparently E. Haven is not pleased with a late document drop and 3 of its 4 members of the Board of Directors are opposed to the lease. https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Tentative-Tweed-New-Haven-Airport-43-year-lease-17375675.php
Today I wrote to the Mayor, NH Board of Alders President Walker-Myers and Corporation Counsel Pat King to inquire why there are 6 vacancies on the 15 member board and to request a delay in the signing of the Lease until all the vacancies can be filled.
If the vote proceeds and the Board rejects the Lease, the new terminal will have to be in New Haven and that means more traffic in our residential neighborhoods and beyond.
If the Board votes and signs the Lease, there will no doubt be questions about whether the Board followed its own Bylaws.

"Scanlon said that, thanks to inflation, the $70 million that airport leaders put forward back in May 2021 has now likely risen to closer to $100 million."

Okay, inflation this past year has been high... but not THAT high. Let's get an honest answer to the question please, Sean.

This is great! Hopefully the deal can be fast-tracked so the new terminal can open even sooner than what is proposed here. Would love to have daily flights to Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, and other cities.

What Yale wants, Yale gets. In this case it cost an additional $10 million/year to the City but that's far less than the $50 million Elicker promised us when he was running for Mayor. For a long time Elicker didn't support the airport, but it was the only way he was going to get the $10 million from Yale and save face.

East Haven and New Haven has valid concerns about traffic, noise, pollution and flooding. I hope the airport works with the surrounding neighborhoods to address those issues. I agree that the terminal should be moved to the East Haven side, but electric shuttle buses or CT Transit buses should have a dedicated route that stops at the Union Station with its soon to be built multi-modal transit hub and Shoreline East Branford train station to encourage more passengers to take the train and then to take the shuttle to the airport.
All ride service companies should have a stop at the airport.
Traffic calming on the route from the highway to the airport needs to be implemented.
The Shoreline Greenway trail and the Farmington Canal trail need to link up to the airport with secure bike storage lockers and with a circular route looping through the East Shore parks as well as to the airport terminal and through the center of East Haven to encourage bike riders.
Flooding concerns and environmental and noise concerns need to be mitigated.
The homes and businesses closest to the beginning and end of the runway should be bought at fair market value and the land should used to build noise dampening berms and flood control water absorbing measures and pollution filtering systems for storm water runoff from the airport.

Scanlon says this is a really great deal. How does a guy who I'm told doesn't fly let alone fly out of Tweed, know this a good deal? How did he even get this job?

@One City Dump: Scanlon is budgeted for $110,000 salary for 2023 plus tax payments. who knows about benefits: auto? credit card? club memberships? Money is a big motivator.
@ Heather C: The location for an airport - much less the expanded runway, flights, environmental insults and effect on traffic for miles around - could not be worse. It is an environmental disaster. Periodic flooding will give way to permanent flooding in some area. And the effect on residential neighborhoods - like Fair Haven, the Heights, the Cove and E. Haven - are just starting to be realized with much more to come.
This is all about the whims of big corporate interests - Yale Corp, YNHH, the budding biosciences and the Chamber of Commerce. Bradley is modern, has better deals to more destinations and even the parking is cheaper. All that is needed is a rail line. Why the rail went to Hartford and bypased Bradley must be a story an investigative reporter needs to research.
The entire expansion is just another Goldman Sachs investment and does not reflect the needs of the population.
Tweed has the audacity to claim its catchment (potential customers) is one million people in the are. The entire population is 3+ million.
I will never use Tweed.
Bradley is state of the art and doesn't disrupt the environment or New Haven's residents.

Scanlon and Elicker will continue to run for larger office, would not surprise me if they each ran for Rosa's office an squared off against each other. This is a stepping stone for each at the expense of life and environmental quality of our neighborhoods. Scanlon lives in Guilford, so it's perhaps expected that he will not have New Haven's interests in mind. Elicker lives in East Rock. The latter should know better.

@Patricia Kane, "Why the rail went to Hartford and bypassed Bradley must be a story an investigative reporter needs to research." The rail line to Bradley was projected to lose money, not a good start for a project. "Tweed has the audacity to claim its catchment (potential customers) is one million people." So far Avelo is doing very well and is in line to reach 300,000 enplanements this year, there is a strong market for air travel in the shoreline area. @Dennis.."What Yale wants, Yale gets." The Yale shtick has been done to death, find a new line that means something. Yale is not a major user of Tweed, but its regular folks who like using a nearby airport, not one almost in Massachusetts.
Avelo found the sweet spot among area travelers and how fast they went from serving four cities to fourteen cities in less than a year. This is the new normal and while a few moan and groan and fabricate untrue statements, thousands are supporting Tweed with their wallets buying tickets. The runway extension is on track that will help eliminate weight restricted flights and diverted flights due to weather conditions. The SCOTUS ruled in Tweed's favor on the runway issue, local,state and federal politicians are on board with Tweed's plans as is the traveling public.
I have used Tweed for decades and I try to avoid Bradley as much as I can, it's just too far compared with Tweed and much less of a hassle. One last point, the rail line that was talked about with a stop at Bradley would entail a long time consuming trip with many stops along the way. Then lugging luggage from the train to buses to the Bradley terminal. Look on a map of the location of Bradley, a stone's throw from Massachusetts.Tweed has a ready made market for air travel that is much closer than Bradley and people love it.

@One City Dump "Scanlon says this is a really great deal. How does a guy who I'm told doesn't fly let alone fly out of Tweed, know this a good deal?" What does that have to do with getting a good deal for Tweed's future? He does not have to ride a plane to know that the Avelo flights are good for thousands of travelers and will increase the airport's income. This deal is about finances, not taking a flight,that has nothing to do with the issue at hand. Stay on topic.

The noise the airport is generating right now is unacceptable, nevermind with increased flights.

I am ambivalent about the expansion. But the vote is likely a done deal; legislative leaders very rarely let an important matter reach this point unless they know how it will go.

Here are some ideas to reduce, to a degree, the airport’s environmental impact.

For years, when the airport was part of the city's budget, the naysayers kvetched, "that airport is a drain on taxpayer dollars!"
Now, with this agreement, the airport will be completely OFF taxpayer subsidy.
You'd think they'd be happy.
As for "what Yale wants, Yale gets," I don't recall seeing any university people at last year's May 6th announcement.
East Haven mayor Joe Carfora has a chance to skilfully negotiate an arrangement that can safely put to rest local concerns while at the same time provide revenues for town maintenance...if he's bold enough to do so. (Kudos to Executive Director Sean Scanlon for keeping the lines of communication open).
After all, didn't the mayor originally state that East Haven labor and businesses would be involved?
And just where IS the labor community in all this? Why are they content to let Mr. Carfora go back on his word? Especially in a significantly "blue collar" town like East Haven?
If the mayor is going to walk away from this because fifty---that's right, FIFTY---people protested in front of Town Hall, then fine. There's still the New Haven side.
But don't take MY word for it. East Haven airport opponent Patrick Medusa went on record as saying that Townsend Avenue is the better street to handle airport traffic. (I wonder what Rachel Hereema and Gabriela Campos would say about Mr. Medusa's claim?)
There's only one direction for Tweed to go, and that's forward.

If Tweed gets flooded from rising sea levels due to global warming, the surrounding houses will go under water as well, it’s not like the flood waters will skip surrounding the residences. In fact, a lot of East Haven and the East Shore maybe be impacted by increasing storm surge, storm water runoff and rising sea levels. But if we have a major airport, then the state of CT and the US Army Corp of engineers and the federal government will be a lot more interested in funding flood mitigation and prevention measures.
The large majority of passengers to the new destinations seem to be less of Yale affiliation and more like business related and local folks going down south for vacations and snowbirds. There has been interest in the Midwest and Southwest and the West Coast.
With the new neuroscience hospital being built, the growing biotech industry in New Haven, and the large influx of pandemic related and remote workers moving primarily to the shoreline and western counties, the customer demand for airport service is NOT in Hartford if people can take Tweed or go to the NY/NJ airports.
Bradley should have a dedicated bus, shuttle or train line service, as well as Tweed should.
The airport needs to address pollution, flooding, noise, traffic and other concerns, but Tweed’s new airline routes are a success and they are NOT going away. The matter has been decided by the courts. The fight is no longer about the longer runway and the increased service, it is about addressing and mitigating concerns to protect the surrounding areas from its impacts. We should be focusing on those issues now.

My biggest disappointment with the plan for Tweed is that the arguments made to make a expansion deal has been tossed out the window. For years the argument was to bring people into New Haven, link to education and capital markets to grow business and to have an easy logistical option. What we got is an airline for snowbirds and vacationers. While there are more flights they are limited, and restrictive. You pretty much have to plan on their schedule, you'll need a back up plan if your flight is canceled, do you have a place to stay or do you want find a day of fly purchase ticket from another airline. The Avelo announcement was quickly followed by the announcement that American Airlines was pulling out, apparently they only stuck around because of PPP and other government guarantees. Bradley shouldn't worry about Tweed they should be working to get Aer Lingus back. Yale used to encourage their employees to use Tweed , under the current routes and schedules I don't think it fits their requirement .

@Steve: "The SCOTUS ruled in Tweed's favor on the runway issue, local,state and federal politicians are on board with Tweed's plans as is the traveling public. "
I was surprised to learn that the case was decided based on a stipulation agreed to by both sides. That raises the question: what was in the Stipulation? Why do I ask? In reading the decision the entire reasoning is based on what is good for the airport and the FAA safety rules. No where was there ANY mention of environmental issues, the danger of increased flights in a residential neighborhood (which the State tried to protect!) or issues of environmental justice. There was NO mention of anything affecting the public, which seems like a significant omission. Since the City of New Have was co-Plaintiff with Tweed, was the decked stacked? I'll have to read the first court decision and try to see what the Stipulations were to decide.
@Kevin McCarthy: Significant boards, such as Zoning, never have vacancies. There are registered Green Party, Libertarian and even Unaffilliated voters registered. Any one can reach out to them if the Will exists.

@robn "The noise the airport is generating right now is unacceptable" When the 2009 MOA was dropped, some Tweed foes were disappointed and yet the MOA allowed up to 30 daily flights. The most Avelo has is 14 flights on some days and other days fewer flights.
Why did some buy homes near Tweed, did they think Tweed would stay frozen in time? When you buy a home that is the lowest cost in the area, there is a reason. Airports, all airports make noise and that will never change but as time goes by airliners are quieter than the ones 10-15 years ago. Still, buy a home near a school, noise from kids at recess and phys-ed, evening ball games, school buses in and out and parents dropping off and picking up kids. Could some complain about that and have a valid case? Hardly. Many in the local media have said the noise does not bother them so they stay. Stay or move, its the only two choices left.

Patricia, unfortunately you are mistaken. The Board of Zoning Appeals currently has several vacancies, all non-Democrat spots. In the recent past, it has had to cancel meetings for lack of a quorum. https://www.newhavenct.gov/government/boards-commissions/boards-commissions-listed/board-of-zoning-appeals

Serving on boards and commissions is unglamorous, unpaid, and sometimes tedious (I speak from experience on this point). The land use bodies in particular have hearings and meetings that go late into the night. The city needs to do more to fill vacancies, but it isn’t easy.

@FromtheEastside: Well said. The Airport Master Plan makes a strong case for improving service for business and university travelers. Attracting ultra low cost carriers (such as Avelo) was supposed to be part of a broader growth strategy, not Tweed's only iron in the fire. Catering to the leisure travel whims of suburban families is a far cry from what was promised at last year's big press conference.

Patricia, I re-read the Court of Appeals decision and read the District Court decision for the first time. There weren’t any factual issues in dispute - the stipulations deal with the airport, its expansion plans, relevant state and federal law, etc.

At both levels, the issues were (1) did the authority and the city have standing to sue the state regarding the state statute that limited the length of Tweed’s runway and (2) did the Federal Aviation Act and other federal laws preempt this state law. The Court of Appeals reversed the District Court’s ruling that (1) the authority and city did not have standing, and (2) even if. they did, federal law did not preempt the state law in question. When I first read about the Court of Appeals decision, I was a little surprised about the standing ruling. I wasn’t with regard to the preemption issue - the federal government has clearly occupied the field of commercial aviation safety, which was directly implicated by the state law.

Steve, SCOTUS didn’t rule in Tweed’s favor on the runway issue. Rather, it declined to review the Court of Appeals decision. The authority still needs to get a number of state and federal approvals for the expansion project.

@Oliver Gaffney "Catering to the leisure travel whims of suburban families is a far cry from what was promised at last year's big press conference." The press conference made mention of Avelo airlines as a low cost carrier. A trip of a 1000 miles starts with the first step. The current Avelo service beats American's one flight to Philly 5 days week. More service will follow but in the meantime passenger records will be broken this year. In the past when United was there, the best yearly total was 132K, the end of this year should yield about 300K. The Trenton NJ airport has a similar flight line up and the numbers are good. I am hoping for Delta or United to be the next airline, but finding room in the terminal might be a hindrance. If Either Delta or United were to start service, 70-76 seat planes could hopefully fit along with Avelo's flights. Say what you want, but Tweed is having its best year yet and it will get better.

@FromtheEastside "Steve, yes the announcement for Avelo was for a low fare low frills airline but they didn't say American would be leaving. Because of Covid American cut down to one flight. Before that they had three and had added a non stop to Charlotte." Granted it was sad to lose AA,but what's better no airline or a low cost airline that many are using. I feel Delta or United will return to Tweed but it may take some planning to find enough room in the terminal. I see either airline using 70-76 seat regional jets so that may fit better in the current terminal than using 150 seat planes as does Avelo. Tweed should hit 300K passengers at years end, that would break the record of 132K in 1992. As George Jefferson sang, "Were moving on up." Be patient.