Thomas Breen photo
Tweed Interim Executive Director Matthew Hoey delivers the news.
Christopher Peak photo
A second airline has all but committed to fly out of Tweed if the airport extends its current runway — which a bill before the state legislature would allow the airport to do.
Matthew Hoey, the new interim executive director of Tweed New Haven Regional Airport, delivered that report at the regular monthly meeting of the Southern Connecticut Regional Council of Governments (SCRCOG) on the fourth floor of 127 Washington St. in North Haven.
He told the roughly three dozen municipal officials, economic development boosters, and state and federal legislative analysts gathered at Wednesday’s meeting that the Las Vegas-based, budget airline Allegiant Air is “very, very serious” about running planes from New Haven to Florida and perhaps out west as well.
That deal is contingent, however, on the airport extending its runway beyond its current length of 5,600 feet. Neighborhood opposition has helped prevent the state from voting approval needed for the expansion.
“The Greater New Haven market area is the largest underserved market in the country,” Hoey said about the region’s access to air travel. Extending the runway and adding a new carrier and new destinations would work towards filling that current void, he said at the meeting, which took place last Wednesday.
Hillary Gray, a spokesperson for Allegiant Air, later told the Independent the airline has indeed been in conversation with Tweed about running flights out of New Haven, She said the company has submitted written testimony to the state legislature several times over the past few years in support off the runway extension.
She declined to comment on where Allegiant flights from Tweed would go to, how many would fly out of New Haven per day, or how close the airline and the airport are to a deal. She did confirm that any deal hinges on the airport extending its runway.
Hoey, who works full-time as Guilford’s first selectman, has served as the airport’s interim part-time volunteer executive director since late February. The airport itself is managed by AvPORTS. The executive director role, he said, mostly involves general oversight, signing checks, handling correspondence, and working with the operations director.
Wednesday’s SCRCOG meeting.
He said the airport’s board did not feel comfortable hiring a full-time, paid replacement for Tim Larson since the airport is currently in the early stages of conversations with the Connecticut Transportation Authority (CTA) about having that quasi-public body take control of Tweed.
Hoey also informed SCRCOG attendees that a legislative bill that would allow the airport to extend its runway recently received the go-ahead from the state legislature’s Transportation Committee, which is headed by New Haven State Rep. Roland Lemar.
That bill, House Bill (H.B.) 7143, would repeal existing state law that prohibits the airport from extending its runway beyond 5,600 feet. The committee approved the proposed bill 33 to 3 on March 20.
“In no case will the extended runway exceed the existing footprint of the airport,” he said.
Hoey said that he recently spoke with Lemar, who told him that “substantial community involvement and input is required to move” the bill through the full legislature.
Neighbors argue that the proposed expansion violates a previous promise made by the city not to extend the runway; endangers the environment; and doesn’t make financial sense. (Read more about that here and here.)
American Airlines currently flies three flights a day from New Haven to Philadelphia, and one flight on Saturdays from New Haven to Charlotte.
Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce President Garrett Sheehan.
Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce President Garrett Sheehan stressed during his presentation to SCRCOG that extending Tweed’s runway remains a priority of his organization.
“We feel strongly that extending the runway of the airport would have a strong positive impact on the region’s businesses,” he said. In particular, he said, a longer runway would allow airlines to fly fuller 144-person planes, not necessarily larger planes, to Philadelphia, Charlotte, Florida, or wherever they may be going.
“Airlines cannot be profitable if their running loads are less than 70 percent,” Hoey said. He said, at Tweed’s current runway length, Allegiant Airlimes would only be able to fill around 50 percent of their planes.