If the feds shut down the air traffic control tower at Tweed-New Haven Airport, it could threaten not just commercial flights to Philly, but medical helicopters landing at Yale-New Haven Hospital’s helipad.
Three members of Connecticut’s Congressional delegation sent that warning Friday, in the wake of a decision by the Federal Aviation Administration to close the tower. Tweed is one of 173 airports slated to lose their air traffic control towers on April 7 due to the “sequester,” automatic budget cuts prompted by a failure of Democrats and Republicans to strike a budget deal. Tweed may have to close if it loses the tower, depending on whether its sole commercial airline, US Airways, decides to continue landing there without air traffic controllers to guide the way.
Tweed-New Haven Airport chief Tim Larson has vowed to fight the decision.
In a letter Friday to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta, U.S. Sens. Dick Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro backed him up.
They urged the FAA to “immediately reconsider” closing Tweed’s tower.
They framed the issue as a public health risk: The tower is vital not just for organ donations arriving at Tweed en route to Yale-New Haven Hospital, they said, but for helicopters landing at the hospital’s helipad downtown. “The Life Star flights to and from this helipad for medical emergencies could be affected if the tower were to close,” they wrote. Injured veterans also arrive at Tweed en route to the West Haven Veterans Affairs facility, they added.
They made a case for Tweed’s unique value in the region: Of the 173 airports slated to lose their towers, Tweed is the only airport in New England that offers commercial service. US Airways runs four daily trips to Philadelphia from Tweed, serving 40,000 people per year, according to the airport authority. The Tweed tower is also in a key position to help guide planes going into and out of New York airports passing over Long Island Sound and lower Connecticut, they added. And in Superstorm Sandy, “when the Sikorsky and Groton/New London airports were underwater, Tweed went unscathed and was able to accept air traffic diverted from other airports.”
Two more reasons: Tweed employs 120 people. And the FAA has already invested over $70 million in improving the airport, with more improvements to come down the line.
“In short, Tweed is a major economic engine and public safety asset for the City of New Haven and the region,” the lawmakers argued. “We should not put safety, jobs, or vital commercial air service at the Tweed airport at risk.”
“The FAA has made no final decisions about tower closures,” the agency said in a press statement Friday.
The air traffic control towers on the list of closures have fewer than 150,000 total flights and fewer than 10,000 commercial flights per year. The agency will be reviewing the list between now and March 13, FAA chief Huerta wrote in a letter dated Tuesday.
“Negative impact on the national interest is the only criterion the FAA will use for deciding to continue services to an airport” that fell on the list, Huerta wrote. “The FAA is unable to consider local community impact that does not affect the national interest.”
“The FAA will consider information concerning how closure of particular tower operations will adversely affect the national interest,” provided that the info comes in on or before March 13, he wrote. The FAA plans to finalize the list of closures on March 18.