Tweed New Haven Airport is planning for a major expansion of its facility and the arrival of a new commercial carrier.
The expansion will include a 74,000-square-foot terminal on the East Haven side of the airport, along with an extension to the runway to accommodate more commercial traffic.
Avports, the management company in charge of operations at Tweed, will finance the expansion, which is budgeted at $70 million, and is forecasting the creation of up to 11,000 jobs and $47 million a year in local and state tax revenue as a result of this plan.
The airport is welcoming the arrival of Avelo Airlines, a startup budget carrier that began operations last month. Tweed will be the first East Coast airport served by Avelo, which focuses on West Coast destinations. Avelo is expected to arrive at Tweed this summer, but has yet to announce which routes it will service from the airport.
For years, Tweed”™s progress has been stymied by an inability to expand due to a 2009 state statute limiting its runway length to 5,600 feet. In July 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a 23-page decision that voided the 2009 statute and overturned a 2017 lower court ruling against the airport. The Court of Appeals acknowledged that Tweed”™s runway is “one of the shortest commercial airport runways in the country” and said that the final determination on its runway length lies with the Federal Aviation Administration and not the state.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court to review the appeals court ruling and determine whether the airport can sue the state under the U.S. Constitution”™s Supremacy Clause. But the Supreme Court denied Tong”™s petition in March 2020, allowing the appeals court ruling to stand.
Last fall, Tweed briefly lost its sole commercial carrier when American Airlines said it would cease flights from the airport. The airline changed its mind and resumed its daily service connecting Tweed and Philadelphia International Airport in January.
