CAA: Tweed New Haven Regional Airport Has Operated Without a CT License Since 2022

Oct. 17—NEW HAVEN — Tweed-New Haven Regional Airport has operated without a state-mandated license from the Connecticut Airport Authority since March 2022 "in violation of Connecticut law," the CAA's director says, threatening to take "any and all action" necessary if Tweed doesn't comply by Nov. 3.

But officials for Tweed, which is owned by the City of New Haven and its private operator, said the Federal Aviation Administration — not the CAA — licenses Tweed, although they said they plan to file an application to cooperate and avoid litigation. Officials from Tweed and the CAA have locked horns in the past over the extent to which CAA has authority over Tweed.

The Tweed Authority "cannot continue to operate an unlicensed airport in violation of Connecticut law," CAA Executive Director Kevin Dillon wrote in an Oct. 3 letter to Tweed Authority Executive Director Tom Rafter.

"Accordingly, pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 13b-46(c), 15-41, 15-66, and 15-120j(a)(2), the CAA hereby notifies and directs TNHAA to submit its renewal application immediately," Dillon wrote.

"If TNHAA does not submit its application on or before the close of business on Friday, November 3, 2023, then the CAA will be forced to take any and all action necessary to prevent TNHAA's continued violation of Connecticut law," Dillon wrote.

The letter was sent as Tweed, which is an East Coast base for Avelo Airlines, awaits the FAA's ruling on an environmental assessment for a privately funded $70 million-plus expansion that includes a proposed new 74,000-square-foot terminal and a proposed new entrance off Proto Drive in East Haven.

It is contained in the agenda packet for Wednesday's regular monthly meeting of the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority, although it is not listed on the agenda, itself.

The CAA is the agency that runs state-owned Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks. It also oversees aviation for the state and runs five general aviation airports in the state: Danielson, Groton-New London, Hartford-Brainard, Waterbury-Oxford and Windham. Tweed, leased to the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority and run via a 43-year sublease by a subsidiary of the private company Avports LLC, is not one of them.

The Tweed New Haven Airport Authority was created through a special act of the General Assembly before the CAA was in existence.

"CAA is mistaken on the law," Matthew Hoey, Guilford first selectman and the newly elected chairman of the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority, said in a written statement. "Federal courts have recently affirmed that Tweed New Haven Airport is regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration, which preempts the entire field of air safety.

"This is also consistent with state law, which establishes the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority as an independent airport authority," Hoey wrote. "Such a policy makes sense given the CAA's clear conflict of interest as the owner of Bradley International Airport, and CAA's well established concerns about competition in the Connecticut marketplace.

"Simply put, it is completely inappropriate for the CAA to serve as both a competitor and regulator of Tweed New Haven Airport," Hoey wrote.

Andrew King, a spokesman for The New HVN LLC, the subsidiary of Goldman Sachs-owned Avports that operates Tweed under a 43-year sublease from the Tweed Authority, agreed.

"The Tweed New Haven Airport Authority is not regulated by the Connecticut Airport Authority, but rather is clearly regulated by the FAA and has been going back decades," King said. "The Connecticut Airport Authority's role as owner and operator of Bradley Airport preclude it from serving as a regulator to Tweed, since doing so would create a conflict of interest that could limit access to more destinations and affordable airfare for Connecticut residents.

"We are in contact with the state and are working to understand the Authority's concerns regarding this administrative operating license, so that we can collectively move forward and together give Connecticut residents more air travel options than they've ever had before," King wrote.

That said, "in the interest of cooperation, the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority will complete the application requested by the CAA as a courtesy, with the strict understanding that CAA may not interfere with New Haven's airport," King said.

"There is not a question of safety here," King said in a subsequent phone call."This is purely an administrative application."

But "it is super-weird" to have licensing being done by what's essentially a competitor, he said.

"My understanding is, Tweed does not need a license because they're licensed by the FAA," said Mayor Justin Elicker.

But that question aside, "Connecticut has two strong airports and both airports can operate" successfully, Elicker said. "They should be cooperating," he said.

"I don't think it's any secret that the director of the Connecticut Airport Authority" has issues with Tweed, Elicker said.

Reached by phone Tuesday, CAA's Dillon declined to go beyond what he said in the letter.

"It's an ongoing regulatory issue, so we're not going to be commenting any further," Dillon said. "I think the letter speaks for itself."

In 2019, a federal appeals court ruling in a case involving Tweed's ultimately successful bid to pave portions of its runway safety areas, found in favor of Tweed, ruling that a state statute limiting Tweed's main runway length to 5,600 feet was preempted by federal law and was therefore invalid.

That ruling "confirms that within the boundaries of an airport that is providing commercial service, the FAA regulations are paramount and they preempt any state statute that conflicts with them," Tweed's attorney, Hugh Manke, said at the time.

According to Dillon, CAA licenses are valid for three years "and the most recent application TNHAA filed with the CAA was in March of 2019.

"Therefore, TNHAA does not possess a current, active license to operate Tweed as required by Connecticut law," he wrote.

"The CAA has notified TNHAA via multiple communications of its obligation to be licensed, and the urgent need for TNHAA to file a renewal application," but "to date, the CAA has not received a renewal application from TNHAA," Dillon wrote.

Tweed neighbors Tuesday were buzzing about the CAA letter after the Tweed Authority posted it Monday.

"Don't East Haven residents deserve better?" wrote East Haven resident Lorena Venegas, one of the leaders of the 10,000 Hawks environmental and anti-expansion group. "There should not even be an environmental assessment for a facility with no valid Connecticut licensing since 2019.

"All of the politicians, decision makers, local, state and federal agencies, and no one has protected the residents of East Haven, CT," Venegas wrote Monday night.

On Tuesday, she said the Tweed Authority, City of New Haven, Avports and the South Central Connecticut Regional Council of Governments "remain ambiguous on local environmental impacts to health and properties in New Haven, East Haven, Fair Haven and Branford."

One of the applicable state statutes says the CAA executive director "may approve airports, heliports, restricted landing areas, and other air navigation facilities."

Any municipality or person acquiring property "for the purpose of constructing or establishing an airport, heliport or restricted landing area shall, prior to such acquisition, apply to the executive director for a certificate of approval of the site selected and the general purpose or purposes for which the property is to be acquired, to insure that the property and its use shall conform to minimum standards of safety and shall serve the public interest."

Another section reads: "Any proposed airport, heliport, restricted landing area or other air navigation facility at which more than thirty-six landings and takeoffs are expected to be made by aircraft in any year shall be approved by the executive director before it shall be licensed to be used or operated."

Another reads, "No municipality or officer or employee thereof and no person shall operate an airport, heliport, restricted landing area or other air navigation facility for which approval has not been granted, and a license has not been issued, by the executive director."

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