The office of state Attorney General William Tong has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the judgment handed down by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Tweed-New Haven Airport Authority v. Tong.
The appeals court ruling, issued in July, ruled that a state statute regulating the length of the main runway (Runway 2-20) at the airport is pre-empted by federal law. The ruling overturned a 2017 district court ruling that upheld the state law restricting Tweed from lengthening its main runway.
Tweed officials and supporters have long maintained that the airport needs to lengthen the runway to attract more commercial air service to the airport, which currently serves only Philadelphia (three flights daily), and Charlotte, N.C. (one weekly flight). The state’s decade-old runway statute restricts Tweed’s runways to 5,600 feet in length — less than federal aviation-safety laws allow.
“We have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to address two issues of legal significance to the state: first, whether a political subdivision of a state has standing to sue its creator state, and second, whether the Federal Aviation Act preempts state law in determining the length of a local airport runway,” said Tong, who drafted the petition for a writ of certiorari. “We believe both these issues are of national, state and local significance and merit Supreme Court review,” he added.
New Haven Mayor Toni N. Harp said she is disappointed with the state’s decision to appeal.
“The state’s decision in this case is disappointing and the latest obstacle to delay promising prospects for economic growth and greater passenger convenience that runway improvements would yield,” Harp said in a statement. “The state should instead embrace Tweed – already the region’s only commercially licensed airport – with its wholesale advantages for business development and the likelihood of dramatic highway congestion relief.”
