Thomas Breen photo
Tweed Airport Manager Sean Scanlon at May’s expansion announcement.
Avelo Airlines has committed to investing $1.2 million in upgrading Tweed New Haven Airport’s existing terminal, as the airline prepares to kick off new flights out of the East Shore airport starting in September.
Airport Manager Sean Scanlon made that announcement in an email press release sent out Thursday morning.
He wrote that the airport’s authority voted on Thursday to approve a new, three-party agreement between the authority, the airport’s long-term operator Avports, and Avelo, “America’s first new mainline airline in 15 years”.
As part of that newly inked agreement, Avelo will send $1.2 million to the authority for “various upgrades to the airport’s existing terminal, administrative building, parking, and other areas, all aimed at improving customer experience as Avelo readies to begin operations at Tweed in the third quarter with nonstop scheduled service to several popular destinations.” That $1.2 million from Avelo is in addition to the $2.8 million that Avports has already committed to renovating the existing terminal.
In a follow up phone call, Scanlon told the Independent that some of the improvements to the New Haven terminal will include reconfiguring the entranceway and passenger waiting areas to allow for more people.
“Everything we’re doing is within the existing footprint,” he said. This new agreement simply confirms that Avelo is “still investing money in New Haven, and on course to start offering” new flights out of New Haven starting in September.
He said that Avelo’s CEO will announce in early July where those flights will go.
A private plane flying over Tweed.
The new agreement comes roughly a month after a host of city, state, and federal officials gathered at the airport to celebrate a new $70 million, privately funded expansion of the airport, with a planned new four-gate, 74,000 square-foot terminal to be built on the East Haven side of the site.
That expansion will be funded largely by Avports, which is owned by Goldman Sachs, and has long managed Tweed.
Scanlon said that the airport authority plans to submit a proposed 43-year lease extension to the Board of Alders next month.
Thursday’s press release also states that Avelo plans to station three Boeing 737 – 700 aircraft at the airport, adding more than 100 crewmembers, including pilots, flight attendants, technicians and customer experience workers.
“As Avelo prepares to make Tweed New Haven our first East Coast base, this investment in the airport will mark the beginning of a new era of choice, convenience, and everyday low fares for Southern Connecticut,” Avelo Chairman and CEO Andrew Levy is quoted as saying in the press release. “This investment in HVN reflects our conviction about the huge opportunity we see in this market – an opportunity to offer Customers convenient, everyday low fares delivered by Crewmembers with a Soul of Service. We are excited about the opportunity that HVN and Avports are providing us to serve the Greater New Haven community.”