Tweed-New Haven Airport: Do you lack the capacity?

You're an environmentalist. And you're a doctor. You're an activist too. Then there are the Political Scientists. Don’t forget the photographer who captures near disasters, airspace violations and sees the rivets of airplanes near every day. From your impressive roster of experts, it seems you've got your bases covered. It seems so anyway.

Despite this "Dream Team" that you have assembled to oppose Tweed Airport, it seems someone who knows something about airplanes and airports is missing from your team.

Ask yourselves this very basic question:

Doesn't it make sense to have someone reasonably versed in Aeronautical matters on your team? Afterall, it is an airport, and airplanes fly from airports, don't they? Imagine, they could relate aviation matters to environmental matters. What a concept. Until you have such a person, your opinions and “facts” are merely speculation. How could you understand environmental impacts of aircraft and airports if you don’t understand aircraft and airports? That’s a rhetorical question.

From what I see of some who have joined the fight against Tweed, many do indeed understand the environment...just not the aviation environment. Wouldn’t true science dictate you know something about all the factors involved in a subject as opposed to just one?

Because you understand the environment does not mean you understand everything else.

To have a proper, balanced and informed discussion about HVN's Master Plan update, it is necessary to have knowledge on all the matters involved, how they relate and what they mean to one another.

Thus far, nobody in your information campaign has shown an understanding of all the aspects to this subject...yet they run with impunity on the subject of Tweed as a whole.

Nobody argues or disagrees that the airport and aircraft have “consequences”. What we argue is that you do not have adequate and the necessary knowledge and understanding of all the appropriate aspects to this matter. As such, you shouldn’t be making authoritative statements. You simply don’t have all the pieces to the puzzle. And you shouldn’t be leading the public.

And to be clear, reading an article or two on the environment does not make me an Environmental Scientist any more than you (and others) becoming an Aviation Expert by reading an article about airplanes. I am talking real knowledge here, not just Internet perusal.

The Natural & Mechanical Environment.

Matters of the airport and the environment are quite intertwined. And therein lies the problem: Your campaign against Tweed does not consider this interrelationship. To do this, you need to understand Aeronautics. Do you not?

You Lack the Capacity.

To illustrate the disconnect and discontinuity that anti-airport protesters have between environmental impacts as they relate to airport improvements, let's take a look a runway length as it relates to Airport Capacity. Said another way, " how busy the airport can become" because the runway would be lengthened.

Airport opponents love to brandish runway length under the AMP proposal as a Pandora's box to climate catastrophe. If Airport Capacity relates to environmental impacts (IT DOES) then why wouldn't we talk about airport capacity AND the environment?

Runway length alone does not make an Airport Busy.
How busy an airport can become has nothing to do with Runway Length. Runway Length alone is not a direct and sole contributor to airport capacity. Therefore, you cannot make a verifiable, quantitative claim of harms against the environment solely based on the length of the runway. And because most in the HVN Opposition camp don't understand this FACT, they continue to sell visions of environmental destruction as it relates to the future of Tweed...likening HVN to Laguardia Airport in NYC. I'll show you below: Runway Length (alone) and airport capacity are not directly related.

Let's use real numbers: I have attached in this article Operational data for various airports in our region. This includes Laguardia. Operations are Takeoff and Landings, i.e. how busy an airport is in terms of aircraft movements.

An interesting fact:

All the airports I have included in this comparison have runways longer than Laguardia. And guess what? All the airports I've listed (as compared to LGA) operate at approximately half the capacity of LGA. Hmmm. I wonder how that happens?

***Runway length does not relate directly to airport capacity. ***

For those immune to facts: Laguardia Airport had 133,538 flight operations in 2021 (a 12-month period). That's takeoffs and landings. LaGuardia’s runways are 7,000 feet long. Why is it that airports with longer runways have less flight operations than LGA? By the way, Tweed has approximately 40,000 aircraft operations in a 12-month period. Please, show us how the improvements to Tweed will convey to triple the number of current operations.

***Because runway length NOT is the sole or direct criteria for airport capacity.***

It's more than a runway.

Airports achieve operational capacity through a number of technologies, infrastructure characteristics (airport layout, taxiways and multiple runways for example) as well as various air traffic procedures. If you’re interested in learning what makes an airport busy (and therefore then be able to convey quantitative impacts to the environment) look up things like:

1. High speed taxiways, I.e. Low and high energy taxiways.

2. Mix of aircraft types. Jets? Props? The mix of aircraft types makes a difference.

3. Simultaneous Operations on Intersecting Runways.

4. Land and Hold Short Operations.

5. Parallel and Triple Parallel Runway Operations.

6. Precision Radar Monitored Approaches.

7. How many Runways an Airport has makes a difference in capacity.

8. Current weather…snow, ice, rain, wind and visibility.

9. Airspace constraints.

10. Taxiway configuration.

I attached a document here that talks a lot about airport capacity.

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this short list of aeronautical factors effects airport capacity. This means until you know and understand these factors in the Tweed-New Haven Airport discussion, your assertions in regards to the environment cannot be made with such fanfare. These are the components to the airport that you should be asking and learning about BEFORE you speak conclusively.

When you understand these issues and aspects related to Airport Capacity Initiatives and how airports are built, then you can talk about HVN’s impact to the environment ACCURATELY. Until then, you’re only sharing one side of the story. Yours.

An airport with a single runway has design limitations that prevent it from handling a certain number of operations above a particular a number.

This is just the short course on airport capacity. A lengthened runway does not solely determine how busy an airport can become. I’m sure you will think this all to be gibberish and nonsense as many affiliated with your campaign have already told me so…but these are the real issues that go into determining airport capacity and are anything but nonsense. People who design airports know this, do you?

Bradley International’s Runway is 9,500 feet long and it has half the operations (in a given 12-month period). Why is not as busy as Laguardia?

Albany International Airport has an 8,200-foot-long Runway…and in a given 12-month period it has less operations than LGA.

And Providence-TF Green International Airport is less busy than LGA and it too has a longer runway (8,700 feet).

Hmmm…do comparisons to Tweed’s proposed runway length and that of LaGuardia’s really need to be made? The implication that by lengthening Tweed’s Runway will make it like Laguardia and therefore become an ecological disaster is nothing more than a mischaracterization and lack of capacity to understand the realities of fact.

To lengthen Tweed's runway is to improve its operational margins when it comes to aircraft performance. Operational Performance pertains to an aircraft's ability to take off and land given various weight and weather conditions. And I am not going there today! A lengthened runway at Tweed serves it baseline group and category of aircraft better than today. That's all a lengthened runway will accomplish.

A lengthened runway at Tweed is not a Pandoras Box to hundreds of thousands of flight operations like that of Laguardia Airport. Not even close. Statement about climate disaster, ecological doom and the destruction of the region are woefully inaccurate. The airport opposition’s very clear lack of understanding of airport capacity (and other aeronautical matters) negates or makes their assertions about the environmental impact of Tweed very "suspect".

In Closing.

The matter of airports, airplanes and the environment are clearly interrelated. Many of us in the regional community understand this complex, dynamic and eclectic relationship. To understand these all encompassing issues and their interplay with one another requires knowledge of each. Without this well-rounded base of knowledge, 'discussion' is not discussion. It's opinion. Being a Pilot doesn’t make me any more of an environmentalist than being an environmentalist makes you an aviation expert. To understand the aviation and environmental relationship, you need to be both or at least have the counsel of both.

EA versus EIS.

Airports and Airplanes do affect the environment. As such, aviation and airports face some of the highest levels of Federal and Local scrutiny. This scrutiny comes in a variety of ways, to include law making and other kinds of oversight. Because Airplanes and Airports operate in such a complex and dynamic environment to include myriad scientific, environmental, regulatory and engineering disciplines (to name just a few) the oversight and law-making bodies include trained and experienced experts in these very disciplines. They have a well-rounded base of education and talent.

Rest assured and for everyone in the community: Though you would have us all believe otherwise 10,000 Hawks, there are numerous people (experts no less!) who will weigh-in quite heavily on the subject of Tweed and its EA. I guess we'll see what happens? The EA has only just begun. Those of us who understand the EA/EIS process know very much “it’s not a done deal”. As the activists that you purport yourselves to be, stop 🛑 telling people that the EA has already been decided. It hasn’t. Stop getting your feathers ruffled.

As Stewards of the environment, your assertions and predications of the airport and the environment however a real understanding of all the matters related to the Tweed New Haven Airport Master Plan. In my opinion and that of others, you do not have that full understanding. You’re only considering one piece of the puzzle. Do better for the people you purport to lead.