Yash Roy Photos
City and Tweed officials announce new shuttle service Wednesday morning.
The 14-seat shuttle takes nine minutes, and will run every half hour.
Air travelers can now save $5 a day on parking and ride a free reserved shuttle from Union Station to Tweed New Haven Airport.
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, Tweed-New Haven Airport Executive Director Sean Scanlon, PARK New Haven Executive Director Doug Hausladen announced the options at a press conference held Wednesday.
They said at Union Station that the Park New Haven and Avports (which manages Tweed) are starting a new partnership offering $10 daily validated parking at Union Station combined with a nine-minute shuttle to the airport.
The partnership is a short-term response to the longer-term problem of limited parking at Tweed. The airport currently has 900 spots onsite. The airport has almost reached capacity on some weekends.
“We wanted to create this partnership because we thought it also created multi-modal opportunities for our travelers,” Scanlon said. “This new initiative is another opportunity for people to get to Tweed and save some money.”
The free shuttle is being managed by Avports, which already runs shuttles to and from Tweed. The shuttle, which can seat 14 people and is ADA accessible, will depart from the flagpole in front of Union Station.
Avports spokesperson Andrew King at Wednesday's presser.
Travelers can visit the ParkHVN website for live information on parking availability at the airport as well as the ability to reserve parking at Union Station.
Once having reserved parking, travelers can schedule a seat on the shuttle, which runs every half hour. The shuttle reservations are two-way, so travelers will also need to reserve a return shuttle from Tweed. On the return trip, travelers will receive a yellow voucher slip to use at the parking garage in Union Station to pay the validated $10 per day rate.
“We’re also going to be splitting the profits of the parking fee with Avports 50 – 50 to help them with the shuttle costs,” said the parking authority’s Hausladen.
While the current shuttle is available only to people who also park at the station, the system will be expanded in the coming weeks to also allow for Tweed travelers who take a train to Union Station to also use the free shuttle.
Overnight Flights Curtailed
Elicker and Scanlon, pictured, negotiated a 6.5-hour quiet window at Tweed/
In its first year at Tweed, Avelo has already launched nonstop flights to 14 destinations.
Meanwhile, some neighbors have complained about flights arriving or departing between midnight and 6 a.m.
Elicker and Scanlon announced that Avelo has agreed have all flights depart and arrive between 6:30 a.m. and midnight.
“We listened to the concerns of residents, and we’ve worked with Avelo, and they were quite open to accommodating this request,” said Elicker. He said the change actually took effect in May.