Suite Talk: Sean Scanlon, executive director of Tweed New Haven Airport Authority

The past year has been a tumultuous one for Tweed New Haven Airport. In October 2020, it lost its sole commercial carrier when American Airlines shut down its daily service connecting the shoreline facility to Philadelphia, citing “low demand and the expiration of the air service requirements associated with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.”

American returned in December, only to discontinue its service on Sept. 30. In the interim, Tweed welcomed the arrival of the startup Avelo Airlines, which begins flights between New Haven and five Florida locations in November. The airport”™s management company, Avports, also announced a $70 million expansion of the facility that will include a new 74,000-square-foot terminal and the extension of the runway to accommodate more commercial traffic.

In this edition of Suite Talk, Business Journal Senior Enterprise Editor Phil Hall discusses the changes to the site with Sean Scanlon, executive director of the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority. Scanlon is also a member of Connecticut”™s House of Representatives from the 98th District.

What”™s been happening at the airport during October?

A lot of construction. We are doing about $11 million worth of construction to prepare our airport for Avelo”™s arrival, and while we were sad to see American temporarily leave, it turned out to be kind of a silver lining because it allows us to get a lot of work done that would have been logistically more challenging had American still been here.

Specifically, what were you doing in terms of construction this month?

We had to reconfigure our space so that we can accommodate more passengers and more people coming in and out of the airport, and changing the way that people go through security. We’re going to have a food and beverage vendor for the first time ever here at the airport, which is super exciting, and we had to add more parking spaces. That”™s a lot of things to accommodate a new carrier, but it’s a good problem to have.

How has public reaction been to Avelo”™s new presence at Tweed?

There’s been incredible interest. The bookings have gone really well ”“ so well that Avelo added a fifth destination to that roster with Palm Beach. (The airline originally planned to connect Tweed and four Florida cities.)

The airport has been fighting for years to get its runway extended beyond the current 5,600-foot length in order to attract more commercial carriers. Where are you today?

We’re in the middle of the environmental assessment that we need to do in order to move forward. We respect that process, but once that process is done and if we are to get approval, we believe that it would take about two to three years to do all this work.

Have you been in touch with any other airlines that might be interested in using Tweed as one of their routes for New England?

We’re constantly in touch with airlines. I have spoken to just about every major air carrier in the United States at this point, and just about all of them had expressed interest at one time or the other in New Haven. But each of them always said, “I need a longer runway.” And now that we’re on the cusp of delivering on that ”“ well, at the risk of disclosing things I can’t disclose, I could just tell you that that interest continues and continues to grow.

Are you concerned about some of the hiccups the airline industry has been facing in the aftermath of the pandemic?

It’s been a really tough time for us, just like it’s been a tough time for a number of industries, but we seem to be going in a better direction. And as vaccines continue to ramp up ”“ especially in a place like Connecticut, where almost 80% of the population has been vaccinated already ”“ and people get more confidence in traveling again and getting back to the life we all used to live, I’m pretty confident that air travel will resume.

It already had resumed here before American left a couple of weeks ago. Every single month since April, our numbers got higher and higher and higher ”“ and they were actually the highest they were even before Covid right before they left, which I think tells you something about where the market is right now.

You said American was “temporarily” leaving ”“ have they left the door open for a possible return?

We continue to talk to them about the future here, and they were pretty clear that they weren’t leaving because of anything that we were doing wrong or that there was something wrong with the market. It was just those national things that you were  alluding to. They are definitely open to coming back.

Not everyone has been happy about the expansion of the airport. What outreach have you done with nearby residents who are afraid of increased noise, pollution and traffic?

For starters, I make myself constantly available to them. I give out my cell phone number in the press and publicly. This summer, I knocked on hundreds of doors and said, “I’m Sean from the airport ”“ tell me what’s on your mind.”

We’ve had dozens of public meetings in the last 12 to 18 months about various projects we’re doing here. People say to me all the time, “Hey, me and my neighbor have an issue, can you come over?” And I sit on their deck and try to work it out with them.

There are people who have concerns, of course, but I’m doing everything in my power to try to address those concerns. When we had a lease extension from the city of New Haven, there was a community benefits package for the first time in the history of this airport that will help people mitigate noise and traffic and environmental concerns ”“ which proves, I think, that we”™re taking these people’s opinions seriously.

There has been talk over the past few years about bringing commercial air carriers to Sikorsky Memorial Airport, which is down the road from you in Stratford. How would you view the competition from them?

I think the more the merrier. If Bradley gets more flights, I’m happy for them.

We’re really competing against New York more than anything else here because that’s where most of our passengers go to fly. But I think Sikorsky is really, really far away from commercial service. They have a short runway and they don’t even have a terminal. I think our success here will probably limit their ability to have that happen anytime soon.

But if it does, I’m happy for them. And I’m happy for the people of Connecticut because I think the more choices we can give the people of the state for air travel, the better.

Where do you see the airport a year from now?

I hope we will have received approval of our permitting to move forward. And at that point, begin the design and early construction phase of building a new runway and a new terminal.