Last November Sean Scanlon, a Democratic state rep. from Guilford, was named executive director of Tweed New Haven Airport, which straddles the New Haven-East Haven line and has been trying to expand service in the face of neighborhood opposition since airplanes had two wings. The U.S. Supreme Court indicated in March that it would not […]
Last November Sean Scanlon, a Democratic state rep. from Guilford, was named executive director of Tweed New Haven Airport, which straddles the New Haven-East Haven line and has been trying to expand service in the face of neighborhood opposition since airplanes had two wings. The U.S. Supreme Court indicated in March that it would not take up the state’s request to review a federal appeals court ruling that Tweed could proceed in efforts to lengthen its main runway to accommodate larger commercial aircraft and enhanced passenger jet service.
Now that you’ve won the court challenge allowing you to expand the runway safety zones, what’s next?
In March we won a major victory ten years in the making. By not taking the state’s case [restricting runway length, the principal barrier to expanding passenger service], the Supreme Court effectively ended the legal opposition to expanding the runway.
What’s the next step to expand service?
In September 2019 we began a master plan process with the FAA, which funds most major airport projects, to be completed and submitted to the FAA by March 2021. To complete that plan we will continue to solicit feedback from the neighborhood and other stakeholders about our shared priorities for the neighborhood, the airport and the region. We were scheduled to begin a new round of public meetings in June, but that was put on hold due to the coronavirus. Part of those discussions will involve the creation of a community benefits package that would benefit the neighbors.
What is in the master plan?
Three things: 1) The length of the main runway. 2) Where is the new terminal — will it reside where it is now, on the New Haven side, or is it better to be moved to the East Haven side, which is a commercial neighborhood. And 3) the future of the [secondary] runway, which has been shut down for years because it needs repaving and we haven’t had the money to do it.
As part of his campaign to improve the state’s transportation infrastructure, Gov. Lamont said he wanted to have a functioning southern Connecticut airport, and that would be either Tweed or Sikorsky Airport in Stratford.
Sikorsky is not licensed for commercial flights, they do not have a terminal. We have commercial flights every day; we have a terminal, and are interested in building a new terminal. And we have a lot of interest from many different airlines, especially since the [uncertainty] of the court case has been lifted. So there really is no competition.
