As Tweed New Haven Airport welcomes more flights, neighbors renew concerns over traffic, environment

Tweed New Haven Airport will soon be home to a second airline. Breeze Airways later this year will begin flights to and from Tweed, eventually serving several destinations in Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Louisiana.

The expansion excites airport officials and business leaders, but not everyone is happy about the news. Some local officials and environmental advocates have ongoing concerns about air quality and increased traffic around the airport.

The airline has planned on “significant growth” across the Northeast due to population density and “limited nonstop travel options,” according to Lukas Johnson, Breeze Airways’ chief commercial officer.

Meanwhile, Avelo Airlines, which has operated out of Tweed since 2021, announced that it’s adding a non-stop flight to New Orleans and expanding its flights to Puerto Rico this winter.

The airport’s expansion increases the state’s economic viability and makes it more attractive to doing business in Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont said in a statement.

The airport is giving customers more flying options, said Andrew King, a spokesperson for Avports, the company that operates the airport on behalf of the state.

“To go from almost zero passenger service in 2022 to 1.2 million annually by 2024, and by the beginning of 2025 we’ll have 36 destinations,” King said. “It is a really big deal that offers a lot of options for what was once the second-most under-served market in the country.”

But East Haven Mayor Joseph Carfora says he is concerned for people living near the airport and is monitoring traffic in his town’s roads. He says Tweed officials have failed to be transparent about their plans. The town has been challenging runway and terminal expansion plans on the grounds that the work could damage the environment.

“One has to be concerned for the neighborhoods in New Haven that are already bearing the brunt of the current setup,” Carfora said in a statement. “Based on the limited information available to us, there seems to be no end in sight for those affected residents.”

Carfora said East Haven “remains fully committed to holding Avports and Tweed accountable at every stage.”

“We will continue to protect the rights and quality of life for the residents of East Haven,” he said.

Connecticut Senate President Martin Looney says he and other neighbors on the New Haven side of the airport had not expected such a rapid expansion before a longer runway and terminal were built.

“Most people believed that the significant expansion of flights would not come until the new terminal was built in East Haven,” he said.

Looney said he’ll use his position in the state legislature to push the Lamont administration to get the expansion done.

“Obviously state money has to be put into the project to provide East Haven the incentive to allow the project to go forward,” he said.

The Federal Aviation Administration said last year that the airport’s expansion plans — which include a new terminal and runway extension — would have “no significant environmental impacts” on the area.

In February, the town of East Haven and Save the Sound appealed the ruling . Save the Sound said the expansion could have significant impacts on air quality, wetland destruction, water quality degradation and flooding.

“The whole point of the expansion, however, including a vastly expanded parking lot, is to increase the airport’s use,” Save the Sound said in a statement earlier this year. “The increased capacity will logically lead to more flights (both passenger and freight) from larger airplanes which will worsen air quality and increase environmental impacts.”

Michael Jones, CEO of The New HVN LLC, an Avports subsidiary, said the airport has sought to address environmental concerns and to avoid flooding from water draining off the property, as well as preventing impacts to neighbors during expansion.

“The new terminal, the location of it, actually reduces the number of homes impacted from the sound contours,” Jones said.

The airport provides jobs and contributes to the economies of East Haven, New Haven and the region, Jones said.

“Our goal here is to make sure we deliver a great passenger experience, that we’re a good community member, that we listen to the concerns, and that the things we can address we will address,” Jones said. “We will continue to support East Haven and support New Haven.”

Connecticut Public’s Matt Dwyer and Eric Aasen and WSHU’s Ebong Udoma contributed to this report.

This story was first published Aug. 16, 2024 by Connecticut Public.