Thomas Breen photo
Tweed deal outlines revealed in May; fine print was released Tuesday.
The runway lengthens, a new terminal and garage get built, and the name “New Haven” remains under newly released terms of a proposed 43-year lease between the city and Tweed’s airport authority.
The deal includes lifting of a weight limit on local aircraft — and the teeing up of a long-term sub-lease with a deep-pocketed private investor.
Those terms, and many more, were revealed Tuesday in a new proposed amended and restated lease and operating agreement between the city and the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority and a proposed ordinance amendment.
City officials submitted the proposed lease extension to the Board of Alders for Tuesday night’s latest monthly meeting.
They also submitted a related proposed ordinance amendment that would repeal a city law that prohibits airplanes that weigh more than 160,000 pounds from using Tweed.
Both proposals now advance to an aldermanic committee for a public hearing before returning to the full board for a final vote, likely in the early fall.
Tweed’s current terminal, soon to move to East Haven.
The proposal lease renewal and aircraft weight-limit repeal come two months to the day after local, state and federal officials held a celebratory press conference at the East Shore airport to announce that Tweed’s current private management company, the Goldman Sachs-owned Avports, has promised to invest $70 million to upgrade and expand the current airport —and to bring in new airlines along the way.
The proposed 43-year lease extension between the city and the airport authority is an intermediate, necessary step before the airport authority can finalize a separate long-term sub-lease with Avports.
City Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli described in a cover letter addressed to the Board of Alders on this matter “our shared goals for economic growth in a manner that is responsible to the surrounding community and the environment. The above-referenced communication represents a significant step towards implementation of these goals in light of the recent progress on an update to the Airport Master Plan together with new air service development and a proposed public/private partnership with the Airport’s management contractor.”
Morris Cove neighbors critical of the Tweed expansion, meanwhile, have formed a new group called 10,000 Hawks, and have promised to watch with a close eye every step of airport’s major new moves.
Click here, here, here, and here to read in full the new lease and related documents submitted by the city.
Longer Runway; “New Haven”
The 29-page proposed lease agreement between the city and the airport authority, as well as the half-dozen supporting documents submitted by the city to the Board of Alders, flesh out many of the details already brought up by city, state, federal and airport officials over the past two months.
Some of the key provisions of the new lease include:
• The extension of the airport authority’s $1‑per-year lease of the city-owned airport land through June 30, 2064.
• The extension of the airport’s main runway from 5,600 feet to 6,635 feet long.
• The construction of a new four-to-six-gate passenger terminal and a new parking garage on the East Haven side of the airport property.
• “New Haven” will remain in the airport name, with any future airport naming rights requiring city approval.
• The phasing out of the city’s annual operating subsidy of Tweed. This fiscal year will see the operating subsidy stay at $325,000. Next year, it will drop to $162,500. The year after that, and going forward, the city will not pay any operating subsidy to the airport authority.
• The signing of a new sub-lease between the airport authority and Avports, which has managed the airport since 1998.
The new sub-lease would allow Avports to not only operate and manage the airport, but also to “implement the updated Master Plan through a combination of on-airport revenue, new private equity and federal grants,” per Piscitelli’s cover letter.
That is, Avports will be responsible for finding the financing for and building the new terminal, garage, and longer runway — and will be able to take home the additional profits that result from that expansion.
What About Avports?
Avports CEO Jorge Robers (right) with Scanlon.
While this proposed lease agreement is between the city and the airport authority, it nevertheless does include a wealth of details about what Avports plans to do based on its separate sub-lease with the authority.
Many of those promises are laid out in the proposed lease’s Exhibit D, dubbed “Performance Standards.”
Some of those planned Avports-led improvements include:
• The renovation of the current passenger terminal on the New Haven side of the airport property to accommodate new air service. Avelo Airlines has already announced that it plans to set up in New Haven as its new East Coast base, where it plans to station three 737 aircraft by the end of 2021 and hire over 100 crewmembers.
• The investment of $1.5 million in traffic calming and wayfinding in areas around the airport.
• The investment of $1.5 million for “noise attenuation” in the surrounding neighborhood, and an additional $250,000 to address specific concerns about noise related to general aviation traffic.
• The creation of a new stormwater management plan for the airport and surrounding neighborhood.
• The operation, maintenance, and upgrading of the Morris Creek tide gates.
• The employment of carbon neutral and LEED principles in the design of the East Haven terminal.
• The creation of an Environmental Stewardship Advisory Committee consisting of three New Haven residents, two East Haven residents and staffed by the city’s engineering department.
• The development of a permanent job pipeline in partnership with New Haven Works.
“Avports, on behalf of the Authority, will manage and operate the airfield facilities (runways, taxiways),” the FAQ reads. “Avports will lease the landside facilities (terminal, roadways and parking) from the Authority, and will then enter into arrangements with airlines, rental car companies, concessionaires, etc., to use the terminal facilities. Avports will have the right to collect the revenue from the Airport operations, will pay its operating and capital expenses, and will pay rent to the Authority as well as a share of revenues above certain thresholds.”
Avports will also be responsible for securing funding for the runway extension, the existing terminal renovations, the new eastside terminal, and other improvements, the FAQ states.
“The runway is expected to be funded mostly from grants by the FAA; but other improvements are expected to be funded with equity contributed by Avports and debt that will be an obligation of Avports. The debt will be non-recourse to the Authority and the City, meaning that if Avports defaults on the debt, neither the Authority nor the City will be responsible for payment.”
And why Avports?
“Avports has been a trusted partner of the Authority for more than 20 years and has decades of experience operating and developing airports from coast-to-coast. Avports submitted an unsolicited proposal to the Authority to transform the Airport with a modest runway extension and a new terminal, which together will allow improved passenger service to more destinations, greater passenger convenience, enhanced airport safety, and significant economic and community benefit to the adjacent municipalities and region. Avports has a long and deserved reputation as a responsible member of the communities where it operates.
“Today, the Airport loses money and needs subsidies from the City and the State. The current financial position of the Authority makes it impossible for the Authority to make improvements that would be necessary to attract passenger service without significant additional funding from the City and the State. Under the proposed lease, Avports will assume responsibility for all capital projects and operating expenses, transferring significant financial risk from the Authority, City, and State.”
Weight Limit
A private plane flying over Tweed.
The city has also submitted to the alders a related, proposed ordinance amendment that would repeal Sec. 4 – 70 of the city’s Code of General Ordinances.
That section of city law dates back to 1985, and prohibits aircraft that weigh more than 160,000 from landing at the airport except in an emergency.
Piscitelli wrote to the alders that this local law is not enforceable under the regulatory purview of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
“Under FAA regulations, only airport operators can impose weight limits on runways and, even then, they can impose such restrictions only if they are supported by detailed technical analysis,” the FAQ reads.
“Not only has the City not been operator of the Airport for the last 23 years, but we can find no technical basis for imposing the weight limit today. Therefore, the City weight ordinance is not enforceable. The Authority, as part of the Master Plan, is conducting a technical analysis, acceptable to the FAA, which will determine the new weight-bearing capacity of Runway 2/20. It is likely to be higher than the Ordinance limit. Available technical data shows that the runway as it exists today can accommodate Avelo’s planned 737 aircraft.”
Some have said they wanted more info, well here it is. Here Tweed is poised to be the commercial airport for the shoreline and city. It's good to see Avelo and Avports commiting to a better airport that will benefit many. The New Haven metro area is a very underserved but large market. With the improvements over the past decade, Tweed's operational capability is the best it has ever been. Still the runway needs to have parts of the overruns paved to eliminate weight restricted flights and having flights diverted to other airports under certain weather conditions.
Soon Avelo will announce what cities will be served with the new flights.