Christopher Peak photo
Tweed-New Haven Airport.
(Updated) Tweed New Haven Airport is slated to receive over $1.1 million in emergency relief, courtesy of the state’s allocation of airport support funds included in the latest coronavirus-related federal stimulus bill.
On Wednesday afternoon, Connecticut’s federal Congressional delegation announced that the East Shore regional airport will receive $1,160,431 of the $30 million in total funding for Connecticut airports that is included in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act recently passed by Congress and signed by the president.
“The airline industry has been hit very hard by COVID-19 and like all airports we’ve seen a dramatic decrease in our daily flights over the last five weeks,” Tweed-New Haven Airport Executive Director Sean Scanlon (pictured) told the Independent by email Wednesday.
He said that the airport has seen a significant decrease in flights and revenue associated with everything from parking to rental cars. He said the airport is a state-designated “essential service” that is required to maintain staffing levels and “keep the lights on” during the current public health and economic crises.
“This is why the federal stimulus money is going to be very helpful to us when it comes to being able to maintain our day to day operating costs for not just the next few weeks until the emergency orders are lifted but for the weeks and months after that until people once again feel comfortable enough to fly again,” he wrote.
He described the Covid-19 crisis as the most challenging time the airline industry has faced since 9/11.
Scanlon added that members of the public have expressed a lot of interest in Tweed recently because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to turn down the state attorney general’s appeal of a decade-long lawsuit regarding Tweed’s planned runway expansion.
“I’m very confident the second half of 2020 will see us back and full strength and actually stronger than we were before the crisis began,” he wrote.
“This $30 million provides crucial funding to support the state’s airports through this pandemic,” Connecticut’s U.S. senators and representatives are quoted as saying in an email press release. “Our airports are a vital link in Connecticut’s economy, connecting our residents and businesses with the rest of the world, which is why we fought to include this grant program in the CARES Act. These dollars will help to ensure that when our economy reopens, our airports are prepared as well.”
“Our airports are vital connection points to the rest of the country and the world, and we know when our state emerges on the other side of this international public health crisis, that they will be even more critical to move people and goods around to support our employers and our workforce,” Gov. Ned Lamont is quoted in that same email press release.
The Tweed funding boost is the second highest received by any airport in the state. The vast majority of the airport funding, over $28.5 million, will be going to Hartford’s Bradley International Airtpo.
Below is a breakdown of the federal funding disbursement by airport:
Igor I Sikorsky Memorial: $157,000
Danbury Municipal: $69,000
Danielson: $30,000
Groton-New London: $69,000
Hartford-Brainard: $69,000
Meriden Markham Municipal: $30,000
Tweed-New Haven: $1,160,431
Waterbury-Oxford: $157,000
Robertson Field: $30,000
Windham: $30,000
Bradley International: $28,543,046
Total: $30,344,476.54