Tweed Will Fly To Nashville, Hilton Head

This is great news to me. It's nice to see something positive happening in this city.

My extended family has already used Tweed recently for both business and pleasure. And they have several flights already planned in the near future. This reminds me of the 90s when we had options to fly from there. Great news.

This is HUGE! (apologies to Hilton Head but) Savanah, Charleston, and Nashville are among the fastest growing and most desirable destinations for both business and leisure. If Avelo, can fill these flights, it will be a huge bonus for residents of New Haven county. Directs flights with having to drive to NYC or almost Massachusetts.

Whoo hoo! Great news.

Happy to see service expanding, and its success has other airlines looking legacy airlines like American coming back. Right now these destinations are vacations, hope they have room for all the golf bags. Hope the fares stay low. Even families with disposable income look for bargains and the flight times are short so you really don't need first class pampering.

I enjoy traveling as much as anyone, and Charleston and Savannah are beautiful cities (I have not been to the other destinations).

But this expansion will worsen air quality, not just in the immediate area but also downwind. (I suspect the greatest impact will be in East Haven and Branford.) There are many ways the airport and Avelo can and should reduce emissions, even with expanded operations. For example, the airport can invest in electric-powered tugs to move aircraft to and from the runways. And the airport and Avelo can explore ways of paying for offsets for those emissions that cannot be avoided.

Having recently booked my wife to PBI, the $49 fares are not just teasers. They are available on low demand days. At least for PBI, Friday seems to be the highest demand and therefore highest cost. Weekdays and Sundays, fares were low, at least heading south. Spring Break and Easter were higher, too.

DC would be a great destination for business and leisure. Choosing a DC area major hub airport with international and cross country flights service would be great for lots of new Tweed customers. Atlanta would also be great hub airport for business and leisure travel.
As would service to a major airport hub in the Midwest like Chicago for business and connecting with cross country flight service routes.

@Heather C. "DC would be a great destination for business and leisure. Choosing a DC area major hub airport with international and cross country flights service would be great for lots of new Tweed customers. Atlanta would also be great hub airport for business and leisure travel." This would not work with Avelo. To benefit from Atlanta's connecting flights, Tweed would need Delta service to Atlanta. Same with Dulles airport with United. Avelo does not code share with other airlines to afford connections. It would take buying a ticket on Avelo and then a ticket on the airline you take to reach your final destination. Airlines like Avelo, Allegiant, Frontier are point to point airlines, not hub airlines that allow connections to be made on one ticket. Hopefully Tweed can have a hub airline soon to open up more of the country to area flyers. Still Avelo is providing the service many people want and more flights are on the way.

Flights to Puerto Rico (Ponce or San Juan) seems like a major point-to-point opportunity if their 737s have that range. With Metro North and shuttle to the airport, you might even compete for a share of the NYC market if the tickets were affordable. The all-in time from Harlem-125th Harlem to boarding gate might be similar to JFK.

@Kevin McCarthy "I enjoy traveling as much as anyone, But this expansion will worsen air quality, not just in the immediate area but also downwind." I understand your thoughts, but consider the emissions by aircraft that run only a short time during takeoffs and landings. Now compare the emissions from I-95 and I-91 that operate 365 days, 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. Aircraft engines have to meet emission and noise standards while vehicles can operate with faulty emission systems.Tweed is and always be a small operation when compared to other New England airports. No reported air quality issues near other airports that handle more flights. Blaming Tweed for health issues has been done in the past and is just part of a few that oppose Tweed. If they feel the air is toxic, why do they not move? For decades homes have been bought and sold near Tweed with no mass outbreak of illnesses. I have had friends who lived near Tweed and apart from the noise issue, never complained about health issues. Note some of the commenters on local media who say they like having a nearby airport and the noise is not an issue with many. I remember when Eastern airlines flew from Tweed with 727's. Those were much louder compared to the current airliners that serve Tweed.
I think it's time to lay this issue to rest. Locals who live near Tweed are using the new flights along with many others who no longer have to drive almost to Massachusetts to catch a flight. Tweed is an existing facility that for years was under utilized and now is providing much needed service to the metro New Haven area. I look forward to the new service.

Excellent news, and great to see Avelo & Tweed being supported by Southern New England to the point of expansion. These are all great getaways.

For the uninitiated/uninformed, Avelo's model seems to closely parallel Euro-carrier Ryanair, which relies on low-cost airports in higher-demand areas. Low-cost means low landing fees. You'll almost never see 'connection-agreements' with other carriers, baggage-transfers, or major airport usage. Ryanair will only land at major airports that give slots to increase tourist traffic, like Amsterdam, and as @steve indicated, you're buying 2 separate tickets if you want to connect.

I suspect the furthest West Avelo will go is Chicago/Midway, maybe Cincinnati. Toronto, Quebec would be great Northern destinations for getaways, but would require a customs clearing center - not in Tweed's plans.

All in all, great news for travelers.

This is amazing for New Haven, but Tweed really needs a few legacy carriers such as Delta and United so that business travelers can come to the city. Currently, companies have to do most of their business out of town because they just can't ask business travelers to deal with the 2 hours of rush hour traffic to Bradley on a Friday afternoon and bringing in business travelers from NYC is out of the question. The impact of a few connecting flights to hub airports would be massive, given how many business events would be able to come to New Haven. Avelo has proven that there's a much larger market here than anyone thought.

Agree with anonymous - it would be great to add flights to major cities for business and connections. However, playing in that league is more expensive and challenging. And, remember, Tweed is still NOT a full size airport. It will be interesting to watch.

Completely disagree with McCarthy - the data I find is that 140,000 cars cross the Pearl Harbor Mem Bridge every day. So, taking into account cars that use 91/95 without crossing the bridge, there are somewhere between 1.5 and 2.0 million cars on the interstates each week (not counting local traffic). By summer, Tweed will have 40-50 departures a week (using modern low emissions aircraft). The effect isn't even a rounding error. Leave the growing businesses alone. Maybe we could focus on city trucks left idling all around town every day. Much bigger gain (and should be easier to realize)

Steve, thanks. There could be lower car emissions if a New Havener who was planning to fly to Florida from Bradley instead flew from Tweed. But it is unlikely that any of the carriers currently serving Bradley, JFK, etc. will reduce their flights as a result of Avelo’s service from Tweed. As a result, there will be added emissions (criteria pollutants and CO2) attributable to the Avelo flights themselves. A round trip car trip from New Haven to Bradley generates about 50 pounds of CO2. A person flying round trip from New Haven to Palm Beach generates about 1,000 pounds. If only 5% of the Avelo passengers are people who would not have flown absent the service from Tweed, the flight would result in a net increase in emissions.

Kevin: You first comment addressed local pollution, especially that in East Haven and Short Beach. Your defense referred to "pollution" spread along the entire route. BTW, I agree that Avelo's business model increases demand, and flying. Absent Avelo, my wife would not be going to Fla. BDL is just too much hassle for a short trip to Fla. Major airlines flying RJs to hubs, however, would just shift demand from BDL to HVN and thereby reduce car pollution as folks would not drive to BDL.

This is great for New Haven. It’s also good these 737s are quieter than United’s 737s that I flew on from HVN to Chicago in the 90s. On a separate note, let’s hope Tweed is working with NH and CT for traffic flow: 1) To encourage mass transit there should be timely shuttles to Union Station, Downtown, and maybe some from Branford station; 2) Increase bus trips on the 206; 3) Have a cop or traffic agents for traffic duty by the entrance, and 4) maybe move Tweed staff parking over to where Robinson Aviation is to free up spots for passengers.

@steve thank you for your factual and insightful comments. I was going to respond but your comments took the words away from my fingertips!!! LOL. This is wonderful news for the greater New Haven area, Elm City and C.T. honestly. Cheers to more flights and continued progression!!!

beware of analysis of pound of CO2 - first, the new jets that Avelo is using tout 2-3 times less emissions so, if we believe a standard flight would be 1000, we should use 400 lbs instead. However, we should step back and ask ourselves about pounds of CO2....if 50 pounds a lot? is 400 pounds a lot?

For perspective, an average human exhales 2.3 lbs per day. So CT humans create 8.3 Million pounds a day by exhaling (58,000,000 pounds per week). We are not even in the same stratosphere here.

P.S. Don't forget to consider the families that are flying to FLA rather than driving this year.

Some major competition for Avelo and Tweed, subsidized by over $1 million of our tax dollars.

https://www.wtnh.com/news/breeze-airways-announces-new-base-at-bradley-international/

We never should have trusted Winthrop to get us a charter. The folks up in Hartford have been hurting New Haven ever since.

The only thing new about these planes is the paint job. The fleet is 15 years old and like the average teenager they are loud and stinky.

Steve, some of the passengers now flying out of Tweed undoubtedly would have flown out of other airports. These include Bradley, the NYC airports, Westchester County, and T.F. Green. The impact on any one carrier at any one airport is likely to be minimal, particularly with air travel rebounding. I am unaware of any carrier cutting its Florida flights to these airports since Avelo entered the market here. Do you have any evidence to the contrary?

Lookout, air travel accounts for a far smaller proportion of emissions than does ground travel. But the emissions (particularly CO2) from the former are growing far more rapidly. The Avelo flights represent new emissions. They are offset, to a limited degree, by lower vehicle emissions as a result of some passengers driving shorter distances to and from the airport. But even this is tempered by passengers (such as 1644’s wife) deciding to fly as a result of Avelo’s new offerings.

The bottom line here is that we're seeing confidence, not just in Tweed but in the New Haven area in general.
Avports believes in New Haven to the tune of putting up $100 million towards airport improvements.
Avelo has already ponied up $1.2 million to improve the "interim" terminal as part of choosing Tweed to be their East Coast base, creating 100 jobs in the process, with 100 more in the offing. (Compare that to Bradley paying the same amount to be Breeze Airways' base.)
Oh, sure, there will be those malcontents who will say, "somebody's making money off of this!" Weren't these the same people who said "Tweed is a drain on the taxpayers!"? You can't win.
It was never a secret of the SoConn-Florida market being a lucrative one to any airline willing to take the chance. (Allegiant Airlines expressed interest in serving New Haven, but just couldn't pull the trigger.)
Avelo took that chance, with their business model of service to the "leisure" markets, for the time being. Perhaps they may want to dip their toe in the "business" markets in the future.
Or, maybe Avelo's success will spur a "legacy" carrier fly a couple of regional jets from Tweed to a "hub" such as Chicago or Atlanta.
So far, Andrew Levy & Co. appear to be pushing all the right buttons for their East Coast operation.
I wish them continued success.