Thomas MacMillan Photo
A private jet at Tweed airport.
Whether airplanes continue landing in New Haven may depend on whether President Obama strikes a deal with Congress before midnight Thursday — and whether US Airways and small-plane pilots will be willing to touch down without guidance from an air traffic control tower.
Tweed-New Haven Airport fell on a list of small airports around the country that might fall prey to about $85 billion in automatic, across-the-board federal budget cuts (aka “the sequester”) scheduled to take effect Friday if no deficit-reduction deal transpires between Obama and Congress.
At issue is whether Tweed would lose its air traffic control tower, from which Federal Aviation Administration staffers help pilots take off and land safely.
Tweed and five other Connecticut airports — every one in the state except Bradley International Airport — fell on a list of 238 small airports at risk of having their towers closed due to the sequester. The FAA announced last Friday it plans to close towers at 100 airports on that list; it didn’t specify which ones.
The cuts would not have an immediate impact. They would take effect in April, according to a joint statement by the FAA and the federal Department of Transportation.
The announcement sparked local concern over Tweed’s fate.
If no deal is reached, local and statewide politicians — including Mayor John DeStefano, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, and U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy and Dick Blumenthal — plan to convene a press conference at Tweed on Friday outlining the sequester’s damaging effects. DeStefano said he is most concerned about federal funding to schools—click here to read more about possible cuts. On Friday, politicians plan to point to Tweed as Exhibit A of the sequester’s impact.
Tweed’s one commercial airline, US Airways, makes four daily round trips to Philadelphia, lifting 40,000 people into the air per year, according to Tweed Executive Director Tim Larson. In addition to the commercial flights, smaller, chartered planes make 75,000 departures per year. The airport employs 70 to 80 people, and shuttles patients and other visitors en route to Yale-New Haven Hospital, Yale University, and regional businesses, Larson said.
DeStefano said he is concerned about Tweed’s ability to maintain commercial airline service as well as retain business from small chartered planes if its tower is closed. He said he has been working with Connecticut’s Congressional delegation to fight the cuts.
Sen. Murphy vowed to go to the bat for Tweed.
“Cutbacks in air traffic control could have a devastating effect on our small local airports,” Murphy warned. “When an airport loses its air traffic control capacity, that makes it very hard to operate.”
Murphy said he plans to “reach out to US Airways to keep them invested in Tweed.” Meanwhile, he said he supports “targeted common-sense cuts” and raising more revenue instead of the “insane” across-the-board cuts that will come from sequestration. “People in Connecticut want us to reduce the deficit, but they don’t want us to do it stupidly. That’s what we’re doing now. Sequestration will reduce the deficit, but it will do it at a cost to the economy that greatly outweighs the benefit to the slight reduction in our deficit.”
U.S. Rep. DeLauro of New Haven also vowed to join the fight for Tweed.
“On Friday, we will be facing deep, automatic, and across-the-board cuts that threaten our economy and the well-being of millions of American families,” DeLauro warned in an email message to the Independent Wednesday. “Tweed Airport and its staff will be among those affected, potentially forced to close air traffic control towers to reduce costs. Instead of cutting so deeply into discretionary spending, Congress should be working on a balanced solution to address our budget challenges.”
The news that Tweed may face hardship brought mixed reactions around town.
“I love flying out of Tweed. It’s quick, convenient, and unlike many larger airports I have been to, the staff are friendly and helpful,” wrote an Independent commenter named RR.
Others welcomed the chance to release a financial burden: In addition to state and federal funding, taxpayers currently contribute $325,000 per year in New Haven property tax to Tweed’s operating budget.
“This would be awesome. No more dependency payments from the state or local taxpayers. The property could be redeveloped into a tax-paying revenue generating entity and no more promises of another airline that never comes. There’s a silver lining,” wrote Noteworthy.
Much remains up in the air at this point. Larson said he does not know whether Tweed’s tower would be targeted for closure. The FAA announced it would close towers of 100 airports with “fewer than 150,000 flight operations or 10,000 commercial operations per year.” With fewer than 3,000 commercial flights per year, Tweed falls well shy of that threshold.
Tweed’s tower is staffed by two FAA air traffic controllers at any given time from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., Larson said. The FAA staff communicate with pilots to clear the airspace, help planes land in inclement weather, and tell planes which runway to use.
If Tweed’s tower closes, would the airport stay open?
That decision may lie in the hands of US Airways.
Airports can, and frequently do, operate without air traffic control towers. Nearly 20,000 airports across the country operate without towers, while only 500 have towers, according to the FAA. Federal guidelines offer guidelines for how to land safely without a tower in place. Airlines will make their own decisions as to whether to continue landing at airports whose air traffic control towers close.
Larson said he is talking to US Airways about whether it would continue service without a working tower. A US Airways spokeswoman declined comment on the matter. US Airways referred comment to a national association called Airlines For America. That association “is working very closely with the FAA to minimize any impact” of the cuts on airlines and their customers, said spokeswoman Jean Medina.
Larson said losing the tower may affect the “general aviation” side of Tweed, which hosts chartered planes and a flight school.
“If we don’t have the tower, planes are going to go elsewhere,” he predicted.
Larson called for a solution that would not hurt New Haven’s airport.
“They should save Tweed,” he argued. Tweed generates $22 million in economic impact for this region, he claimed. He called it a vital service to nearby businesses, to Yale, and to Yale-New Haven Hospital. “The hospital would be devastated if we lost our tower because we would lose emergency flights,” by which doctors and patients are shuttled to the hospital.
“There would be significant economic impact if this [sequester] comes to fruition,” Larson said.