A War On Two Fronts

A lot of articles about Tweed-New Haven Regional Airport invariably include the opposition posed by those residents in the city's Morris Cove section and East Haven. The size of the opposition is unknown, but I suspect it is nowhere near the numbers of nearly 60 years ago when jet service was first introduced to Tweed.

Indeed, when Republican Samantha Parlatto ran for East Haven mayor in 2023, her team conducted a survey, the results of which showed that, on the whole, there were more East Haven residents who were in favor of Tweed's improvements than were opposed.

The local media likes to spin it as a "David versus Goliath" story; the hard-working middle class folk who came out to the suburbs seeking "the good life," only to be menaced by this "leviathan," backed by the "greedy capitalists" of Goldman Sachs. Never mind many of the residents claim they knew Tweed was there; they just didn't expect it to be more than a "Piper Cub" airport. Surprise!

This is the scenario local platforms such as the Register, the Independent, the Yale Daily News and News 8 (among others) like to present.

BUT...

The scenario they don't present is opposition to Tweed from another albeit unlikely source: Hartford.

Why, you may ask, would Hartford be opposed? Don't they take care of Southern Connecticut's infrastructure? Don't they manage Metro-North Railroad's New Haven Division? Don't they maintain Interstates 91 and 95, and State Route 15? What sets Tweed apart in the realm of transportation?

There's a reason for that, and the reason is Bradley International Airport. To say the powers that be upstate "hate" Tweed would be something of an understatement. They despise Tweed.

Tweed is owned by the City of New Haven and operated by Avports. Bradley is owned and operated by the State of Connecticut under the auspices of the Connecticut Airport Authority.

Bradley was named after Lt. Eugene Bradley, who was not from Connecticut (he was from Oklahoma), and who did not die in combat (he died in a training mission when he lost control of his plane and crashed).

Until the late 1940s, Brainard Airport was the facility serving Hartford, Bradley Field having been an Army Air Corps base during World War II. It was newspaper editor Frank Murphy of the now-defunct Hartford Times who, through his editorials, exhorted the state to take over the base and make that Hartford's (and Springfield, Mass.'s,) airport. At about the same time, Another Murphy, New Haven mayor John Murphy, to be exact, ignored New Haven Municipal Airport manager Jack Tweed's pleas to buy the land surrounding the city's airport for future expansion.

The state of Connecticut was not about to make the same mistake John Murphy made, moving forward with ambition to make their airport competitive with the likes of Boston's Logan International Airport and New York City's airports. The Connecticut Airport Authority has even gone so far as to pay subsidies to foreign carriers to provide overseas service from Bradley, such is the state's drive to make theirs not just an "international" airport, but a gateway one.

Now here's where Bradley and Tweed part company.

To finance the improvements at their airport, the State of Connecticut marketed revenue bonds. With revenue bonds, investors would be paid back based on revenues the airport would derive from such sources as parking, concession rentals and the like. Naturally, the more passengers who use Bradley, the greater the revenues to pay off the airport's ambitious expansion plans.

Tweed, being city-owned, was financed with general obligation bonds. "GOs" were sold on little more than the city's promise to pay. Unfortunately, the city's bond rating has been, shall we say, "precarious" at times. Add to that New Haven mayoral administrations from Richard Lee forward emphasized "urban renewal" and improving downtown, putting Tweed on the back burner until Eastern Air Lines came with their first jets in 1967.

And it's my guess that that's when the machers at Bradley first smelled trouble.

Up until that time, Southern Connecticut's commercial air service was provided by Pilgrim Airlines, an air taxi that flew from Bridgeport, New Haven and New London to New York's Kennedy International Airport, and by Allegheny Airlines flying to Philadelphia, Norfolk and Newport News, Virginia. It was Bradley that had all the jets to fly nonstop across great distances while folks downstate were relegated to flying in jet-props such as DeHavilland Twin Otters, Fairchild F-27s and Convair 580s over shorter distances, only to have to change planes elsewhere to continue their trip. A coastal airport improving itself? That could cut into passenger revenues if folks in New Haven County can have the option of not traveling to Windsor Locks.

The Bradley bunch did, however, have a couple of things going for them.

Tweed was in something of an "air war" with Bridgeport Municipal (now Sikorsky Memorial) Airport over who would be the regional airport for Southern Connecticut. Add to this both airports were encountering fierce opposition from their neighboring towns; New Haven from East Haven and Bridgeport from Stratford. And who would benefit from this competition? Bradley, of course!

Time and time again this would play out in the state General Assembly, with delegations from New Haven and Bridgeport attempting to enact legislation to improve their airports, only to have the East Haven and Stratford delegations successfully block their motions at every turn, the state reps and state senators from those towns serving as "useful idiots" for Bradley to maintain its air service monopoly.

True, Hartford had no control over other neighboring states improving their airports. But they could exercise control over the airports within Connecticut's boundaries, as was the case when the state passed a "clean water" bill with the addendum that "coastal airport improvement should be discouraged." Hmmm. Now, which major Connecticut airport isn't along the coast?

Too, the Connecticut Airport Authority manages not only Bradley, but the Danielson, Groton-New London, Brainard, Waterbury-Oxford and Windham airports as well, and until recently had their eyes set on adding Bridgeport's Sikorsky Memorial Airport to the fold. ("If ya can't beat 'em, buy 'em.") How have those airports made out being in the CAA's stable? I thought for sure the CAA would have made a play for Tweed to "relieve" New Haven of such a "burden."

I was on the old Tweed Board of Airport Commissioners in 1991 when final approval was granted by the New Haven Board of Alders for United Air Lines' request to inaugurate New Haven-Chicago/O'Hare service. It was shortly afterward our airport manager alleged to us in confidence that Bradley's then-manager exclaimed, "The first United flight diverted from New Haven to Bradley, we'll have a TV camera crew there to cover it." Swell bunch o' guys, eh?

And, in 2009, in the wake of the disastrous Memorandum of Agreement between New Haven and East Haven, which included a provision calling for Tweed's main runway to be frozen at 5,600 feet, East Haven state reps Michael Lawlor and Leonard Fasano (the latter being the owner of a beach club right in the approach path to Runway 2) set a modern-day record for ramming through legislation, making that provision a state law (without benefit of a public hearing, I might add). It took years of the Airport Authority going through the courts to finally have that state statute annulled. Once again, in Hartford's view of Tweed and East Haven, it was "my neighbor is my enemy, my neighbor's neighbor is my friend."

When American Airlines decided to leave Tweed in 2021, one can only imagine CAA strongman Kevin Dillon and his ilk rubbing their hands with glee; at last, Southern Connecticut was without commercial air service. It would be Bradley uber alles.

But then, something thing happened. Something Mr. Dillon & Co. could not have anticipated.

Startup Avelo Airlines announced that they would start service from Tweed in November of 2021. Only this time, they wouldn't be flying to some "hub" airport as was the case with past carriers serving Tweed. No, this time they would be flying direct to Florida destinations, a service that the region was starving for. And with affordable fares to boot!

Suddenly, Kevin Dillon became a bit more reciprocal, calling for a "coordination" of service between Tweed and Bradley (as if any other competing airports would ever agree to that).

How successful has Tweed been since Avelo's arrival? Bradley actually reported a slight drop in passenger boardings. (Remember what I said about revenue bonds?) And don't they wish they could have added taken Tweed from the city when they had the chance.

I don't know if there's any coincidence, but Avelo recently announced they were starting service out of Bradley as well, flying to Cancun and Montego Bay. Perhaps this was to placate the Connecticut Airport Authority. Moreover, after Avelo announced they would be establishing a base at Tweed (with their own money), Bradley announced that they would provide competitor Breeze Airways with one million dollars for them to establish a base there. (Breeze announced earlier this year that they will be starting service out of Tweed in December.)

Not that the CAA hasn't given up trying to thwart Tweed. They've strategically placed billboards advertising Bradley in New Haven County alongside Interstates 91 and 95, and they've even made overtures to Yale University in an attempt to retain their student population as patrons. And, in my last years of working passenger service on Metro-North's New Haven Line, I recall seeing posters in the railroad car vestibules advertising Bradley (as if people from Fairfield County were going to schlep up to Windsor Locks versus using New York or the Westchester County Airport).

It certainly hasn't helped that, on the eve of big holiday travel, the local media has historically sent reporters to two places: New Haven Union Station and Bradley. Tweed? Not so much. I like to think Avelo and Breeze will change that.

I suspect Central Planning upstate isn't finished in their attempts to thwart Tweed's progress. As I like to say about all of Tweed's foes, they may change their ways, but they haven't changed their goal.

So, while you're reading about the "David and Goliath" story of Tweed and its neighbors, keep in mind the other "David and Goliath" story about Tweed versus its own state government.