Tweed-New Haven Airport. 139 reasons the Hawks are wrong! Dead wrong.

Fighting emotion filled rumor with FACT.
Whether you’re an esteemed member of the illustrious, expert and noble “10,000 Hawks” or just a blow-hard raising their fists at Tweed Airport community meetings, I have some bad news for you.

✈️⚠️ It’s called CFR 14 Federal Aviation Regulation Part 139.⚠️✈️

Before the anti-airport ruffians come out blaming Tweed for violating agreements at the next community meeting, they ought to look up this regulatory agreement that Tweed has had with the FAA…as do all airports who legally accommodate airline passenger aircraft (I.e CFR 14 Federal Aviation Regulation Part 121 flight operations)…for the last 50 years. This airport didn’t just pop up overnight..nor did its operating certificate.

You never told me about this!

Running rampant through the community is the notion that Tweed was never meant to be a commercial airport and that it’s operating outside of ‘agreed to’ guidelines. Rubbish. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The sentiment and rhetoric that Tweed was always just a “Piper Cub airport” is one of the primary allegations made against Tweed by its opponents. This so-called argument is not only one of the most flagrant and non-sensical arguments against Tweed raised by the street gang known as “10,000 Hawks”, but it is their central tenet…and it’s wrong.

Tweed-New Haven has maintained this Federal Aviation Regulation Part 139 operating certificate since at least 1973. Not all airports have Part 139 certificates. But airports that serve airlines are required to have one. There’s an inference here. Do you see it? Tweed has always been a certified Part 139 Air Carrier Airport. You just never looked. I posted a screenshot of the FAA website on 139 certification. Go to the site itself and do your own research.

Tweed Airport has and continues to maintain this certification through yearly inspections on myriad aspects. This Part 139 operating certificate pertains to (among other):

The use of the Airport by aircraft, scheduled or unscheduled, with greater than 30 passenger seats.

And guess how many seats AVELO 737 Jets have? 147 seats.

Telling stories of crop dusters, barnstormers and the flying circus at Tweed means absolutely nothing to the straight, real and undeniable fact that Tweed has been a certified Air Carrier your entire life. This certificate has been maintained whether we had air service or not. And as you know, the airline industry is cyclical. So, sure, maybe traffic lightened up once upon a time, but Tweed didn’t do anything but maintain its certificate. Nothing disingenuous here.

⚠️ Don’t repeat the mistakes of others.
To future homebuyers…if you plan to buy a home in the vicinity of an airport and you wish to know if airliners can land there, find out if the airport has this Part 139 operating certificate. Don’t focus on runway length so much. Focus on the existence of this 139 certificate at a given airport to see what you're getting yourself into. You’ll save yourself a lot of surprise. In fact, the FAA data base is at the ready for you to find out about thousands of public use airports. I posted Tweed’s data here for verification and transparency.

It’s not always how ‘big’ the airport is!

Of great importance: Runway length, number of flights you see at a particular time, how many planes you see on the tarmac…none of these have a direct correlation on the potential activity that could be expected at your airport. Even the mighty Politicos and neighborhood watch dogs have no say on what “kind” of airport is in your backyard..but the Part 139 certificate will…and you can find out about this all by yourself.

An airport without a 139 certificate cannot legally handle airline traffic. If you want to assure no “jumbo jets” are going to land in your back yard, the 139 regulation will help you a lot.

It’s not easy to categorize airplanes or airports.
Airplanes and airports are highly specialized machines and unique forms of infrastructure. The FAA regulatory environment is adaptive to the fact that the aviation industry as a whole often does not fit neatly into one box. There are intricate rules, procedures and ways to categorize airports and aircraft that are not commonly understood by non-aviation persons…heck, even us aviation people don’t fully understand!. But for the sake of brevity and our Tweed discussion, Part 139 is a great way to better understand your airport (HVN) is an airline airport. This could be a way to avoid making mistakes of the anti-airport crowd.

Aviation has a special way of confusing people!
Airport related questions are often difficult to answer. Take for example, when someone asks “how big an airport is”. Do they mean size of the terminal? Runway? How many acres? There are multiple ways to define and categorize airports and airplanes. An airport can have a long runway and a small terminal. Or vice versa. An airport can even be thousands of acres with a small terminal and a short runway! There are numerous ways to answer just a simple question.

As I said above, aviation rules and regulations are crafted exactly because of the difficulty in categorizing airplanes and airports into one specific category. The regulatory way of defining airplanes and airports is meant to be fluid and non rigid. While this doesn’t make communication easy between aviation people and non, it is how the industry works.

Lesson? If you're going to buy a home near an airport, ask your local airport management if they have a 139 Certificate to avoid being slapped in the face with the harsh truth "unfolding" at Tweed. The truth that's been fact for 50 years. It never unfolded. It has been strewn out over 400 acres for a very long time. Karen should have looked harder.

Final Approach.
I think it’s interesting that a so-called community group can allow the false notions about Tweed and its suitability to handle jets to permeate within the very community it claims to protect. Did the “10,000 Hawks” not know about this regulation or did they overlook this key fact? Either way, they have proven that they are most unqualified to represent anyones’ concerns about the airport. I, for one, think them to be Ill informed and disingenuous. I also have first hand experience proving such. But don’t take my word for it…just concern yourself about 139 certificates. Problem solved.

My explanation of Part 139 certification and Tweed New Haven Airport is fact. This Part 139 certificate has been valid and operational at Tweed for over fifty years. Nothing has changed. Nobody has been lied to and no agreements were violated. Sometimes the truth just hurts.