American To Suspend Flight Service At Tweed

YAAAAAYYY!!!!!

No surprise. Even Bradley is fighting due to decreased demand, so why should this little boutique airport blossom or be at least unaffected? Since years, I am writing and warning that the airport will never be economically sound. How many dollars did the city and the state waste?

Of course, now the pro-business people residing in quite Woodbridge, Branford or Madison will come forward and point out how much positive business stimulus this little, unneeded airport creates. Well, then city of Branford or Guilford why not pay Tweed (and thus airlines) more than New Haven ever could, if it is such a great asset. We others drive our 50 minutes to Bradley if we want to fly (this is from my house next to Lighthouse Point Park).

Allegiant Airlines, however, is still interested in bringing Florida service to New Haven.

So Southwest is eliminating flights at Bradley except Baltimore and Midway Chicago. Is that any different than the conditions at Tweed? Some think American is gone forever. New Haven is still the largest untapped aviation market. Enjoy your gloating because once the industry stabilizes your group will need plan Z Stoppers.

Tweed is a business that can barely keep a nostril above water in an environment of excess monetary waste, driven by taxpayer subsidy. Since the crisis hit, flights have been wastefully flying in and out to satisfy rules put in place by the federal bailout (likely only the first bailout of a coming string of subsidies for American and the other big airlines). So much for the tortured calculations by Tweed boosters about conserving CO2.

Building economic policy around niche travel is a bad idea. Let's start focusing on a sustainable New Haven and try to be more resilient the next time crisis hits the city (as it will with Climate Change and who-knows-what in our increasingly unstable age).

As for Florida flights, that's more of a laugh than the "cutting Philly is a good thing" spin that accompanied the NHv Indy article about the last schedule change for Tweed. No one is clamoring to fly at all right now, let alone to Florida, even if they have the money and luxury of taking a vacation during this crisis. Just ask Disney how well things are going.

New Haven is the economic future in CT. Hartford, other than the state government business, rolls up its sidewalks after business hours. Most of, if not all of the businesses that left CT or considered and decided against moving to CT mentioned air travel access and trains as a major deciding factor as to where they wanted to be located and grow their companies.
With the tremendous influx of out of state residents buying and renting property in Litchfield County and in communities along the shoreline from the NY border all the way to Old Saybrook while their employers headquarters are still located in NYC, means more people looking for convenient, quick travel. The temporary slow down and stall of air travel due to COVID-19 will be a temporary blip, going forward the number of companies continuing in allowing people to work from home, and the "more bang for your buck" of real estate values in CT versus the NYC area will entice many of our newest residents to hold onto their new property in our state, at least as a second home for vacations and weekends, if not as their primary residence.
The airport in New Haven, especially with the extension of the runway, will allow airlines to expand services and become a valuable asset for the region and enable the area to grow and raise the desirability to companies to locate in New Haven County. It's just a matter of time.

I second CityYankee's YAAAAAYYY!!!!! Even if temporarily, the pandemic has restored peace and quiet to our neighborhood.

Quote, ""I second CityYankee's YAAAAAYYY!!!!! Even if temporarily, the pandemic has restored peace and quiet to our neighborhood."" Millions infected, over 170,000 deaths and you are happy with that. What a poor attitude during a time when millions wonder if they are next.

Look this is temporary, bad news for NH but not surprising. Similar to the post 9-11 drop in air travel, the economy and flying will start to rebound once Covid is more under control... February, March? I'm hopeful in that this is a month-to-month suspension rather than AA leaving. Also, with the runway project in the near future, maybe the runway and economy will bring a resurgence in Tweed flights. BTW, many flights have been 50 % full, not sustainable, but not the same as "empty." Let's be smart and flights will resume soon.

What a few anti Tweed posters do no know was that during the last few months, Tweed had higher passenger numbers than Bradley did quite a few times on Philly flights. So it was not a case of Bradley flights getting all the passengers, but at the same time, Bradley flights to Charlotte were using much larger planes, had more flights and had much higher passenger numbers, so Charlotte is preferred over Philly by many fliers. When AA started Tweed service at the end of 2017, 50 seat planes were used, then AA upgraded to 65 seat planes and then again to 76 seat planes. The virus has effected all airports and many routes were cut and thousands of airliners have been parked.
Much larger airports have lost service so its not a case of only small airports being cut, Tweed was on its way to another year of higher passenger numbers.
As the virus cases begin to hopefully drop, air travel will increase and Tweed will regain service. As far as the comment about Florida as a destination is foolish, tell that to United which will add 13 new N/S Florida flights this winter, still plenty of snowbirds in the metro New Haven area. Allegiant is the right airline as they offer, not daily flights, but 2-3 weekly flights assuring good passenger loads
Just a point from someone who uses Tweed, my last two flights regarding Tweed were getting the last seat on a full flight to Philly on a 76 seat plane and a near full flight from Charlotte last year.
Operationally I see good things for Tweed, the displaced runway 20 threshold will be moved back, an upgraded visual landing aid for runway 20, the master plan is in the works and the SCOTUS has ended the litany of court cases that has dragged on for decades.

Claudia Bosch: I live in Branford and the Brazilian jets fly right over my house, as the DASH-8s did. The CRJs were quieter than both, but may also have had a different flight path. In any case, the only reason to go to BDL is scheduling. More flights would mean better options for flights out of Tweed. Fifty minutes is speeding with no traffic, and you have to add a lot of time for parking and security clearance, which is pretty much no time at Tweed. In any case, few people are flying anywhere anyway now. Canada and Europe are closed to us, and CT is effectively closed to most of the US.

Folks who invested in Conestoga wagons before the pandemic hit are about to make a bundle.

@steve

"In the midst of the coronavirus stay-at-home restriction, Tweed remains open for both commercial and private aviation, but has generally seen its American Eagle flights down to usually one flight a day in each direction, with 'maybe three or four people on each flight,' Scanlon said."

https://www.aviationpros.com/airports/airports-municipalities/news/21136816/tweed-airport-back-open-after-sundays-brush-fire

Let's not pretend it's been half-capacity for the past few months. If AAL didn't take billions in the bailout and weren't bound by the CARES act rules, there would have been no flights starting in April instead of flying 2-3 people. Tweed will now burn through the $1.16 mil they took from taxpayers and, as dismal demand for air travel continues, a "second wave" of COVID seems likely, remote work continues to replace corporate travel, and American inches closer to bankruptcy, big carrier service seems very unlikely to return to Tweed in the near future. A possible second bailout could save American in October but won't mandate bringing service to Tweed as the first one did.

@ "Sean Tweed remains open for both commercial and private aviation, but has generally seen its American Eagle flights down to usually one flight a day in each direction, with 'maybe three or four people on each flight,' Scanlon said."
This was true for March and April and part of May. Ridership started to rise in June going forward, from the 20's to the 50's on some flights and these numbers were comparable to Bradley's Philly flights where the E175's were used.
New Haven has its market as does Hartford and both were similarly affected by the virus. When AA offered Philly flights to both Tweed and Bradley in June, it was service 5 days a week, less Tuesday and Saturday. Both airports showed the same numbers in ridership and Bradley's flights were on 50 seat aircraft while Tweed had 76 seat planes.
Had the virus not surfaced, Tweed was on track for another year of increased passenger numbers. Why some think New Haven has less of a market or no market for air travel while Hartford has a huge market for flights is due to the disdain a few have for the airport. For decades Tweed has been hamstrung in trying to improve it's operational capability, airlines came looking but left due to deficiencies in the runway and it's approaches.
Now with the court issues finally settled, a modest runway upgrade will remove one of the last problems that have prevented more service from being a reality. Along with this is the advent of next gen regional jets that have seating numbers that match the local demand and can fly further than the props that served Tweed in the past.
Tweed can be a successful airport given it's long overdue improvements are close to being a reality.
@Claudia Bosch "I am writing and warning that the airport will never be economically sound. How many dollars did the city and the state waste?" Airline flights make up a very small percentage of daily flights at Tweed and all aircraft benefit from the latest improvements. Tweed can succeed.

@steve

CAA, politicians, and business leaders will likely see, and rightly so, that Hartford and New Haven share the same market given the Bradley vs. Tweed ridership numbers during the pandemic. I've always been skeptical of Tweed's claims that they have a huge, untapped market that does not cannibalize Bradley's and this "experiment" that has arisen from a terrible crisis contradicts Tweed's claims of uniqueness and, therefore, necessity. As you know, the CAA takeover was likely before the pandemic and seems all but inevitable now... they will not allow Tweed to compete with Bradley, nor should it, esp. given that it's a competition between two entities buoyed by taxpayer funds in the middle of a fiscal crisis (or perhaps a depression when the current blind trend of bullishness in the markets collides with reality).

During all this, Tweed is preparing a master plan for expansion... the spin in that document will no doubt originate from an alternate dimension or plane of existence.

Tweed is state socialism at its worst. An airport that has never been able to stand on its own - gets public subsidies from one of the poorest cities in the state - and still it cannot hold onto flights. If Tweed were a real business it would be out of business. It is interesting that so many business oriented people want Tweed to be subsidized. If you asked these same people whether we should subsidize Sears, JC Penney etc - that are bankrupt, they would say unequivocally no. Yet Tweed - which has claimed that if we spend and build - they will come - and money will be made - is seen as somehow deserving of more. Since the late 1990s Tweed has claimed that profit is just around the corner. 20 plus years is more than enough time to know this is untrue.

It is time to end public subsidies. Those in the suburbs who want to pay - be my guest. But, New Haven and the state should close their wallets. Bradley is a full service airport and is now in financial danger. The state should support it - not Tweed. New Haven has serious budget issues and should no longer support a bankrupt Tweed that mainly helps the suburbs and not the citizens of the city.

It is easy when you pay nothing to ask for an airport to continue to be open and subsidized. The city is a chump for the suburbs and it needs to stop being a chump.

@KNB "Tweed is state socialism at its worst. An airport that has never been able to stand on its own." Since the late 1970's, Tweed's runway has been 5600 feet and that caused United airlines after almost 5 years to leave, frequent weight restricted flights to Chicago made the flights unprofitable. Ditto for Delta back in the early 2000's. Its just been recently that a few next gen regional jets can use Tweed. Southwest looked Tweed over and in the end it was the limited runway that ended those talks.
@Sean,Bradley serves the Hartford-Springfield area and that's the way airlines would list Bradley as. New Haven is far enough away to make Tweed the area's airport. Much of Tweed's funding is from the FAA and it's fees on airline tickets. The runway project will be 90% funded by the FAA as other airports upgrades in the past. The amount of state funding is very small.
The state has listed a grant to the Sikorsky airport for 7 million dollars for a new terminal and that airport cannot service airliners due to short runways. Talk about a waste of money.
Along with New Haven, there are many small adjoining towns that are much closer to Tweed than Bradley and Tweed is much easier to navigate the terminal, parking and TSA. The virus has dealt a serious blow to ALL airports including the big New York airports and hopefully for many reasons it will start to decline and air travel will increase in numbers.
I don't see Tweed becoming a huge operation, but 10-15 daily flights would meet the needs of most travelers and as far as international travel, JFK is the best on the east coast. More flights mean more income for the airport, more jobs, more business for area hotels and restaurants. Remember, Tweed preceded all of you by many years and you all knew the airport was there.One said that the 2009 MOA convinced them that the airport would not grow, it appears that person did not read that document, it allowed for up to 6 airlines and 30 daily flights. Look before you leap.

With Commercial flights suspended Tweed should use this time to expand the runway, just like the DOT expanded road work projectswhile limited traffic was on the roads.