Ground-breaking ceremonies for New Haven Municipal Airport occurred on November 11, 1929. The facility was later dedicated and opened for traffic on August 29, 1931, as the New Haven Municipal Airport. On June 25, 1961, it was renamed in honor of John H. "Jack" Tweed – its first airport manager.
Historical airline service The first airline to serve New Haven was Li-Con Airways, Inc., (Long Island-Connecticut Airways) of
Islip,
Long Island, New York. That carrier commenced service on November 10, 1933, and provided passenger and airmail service until July 1934. In the fall of 1934,
American Airlines began serving New Haven as a stop on flights between New York and Boston and continued service until 1960.
1970s and 1980s Fixed base operator (FBO) New Haven Airways started scheduled flights in 1978 and became New Haven's hometown airline, NewAir, in 1980. The airline operated flights to New York's JFK and LaGuardia Airports, Philadelphia, Baltimore/Washington International, and Washington National Airports, with
de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter,
Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante and
Short 360 commuter turboprop aircraft. NewAir ended all service in 1985. Competing was
Pilgrim Airlines based at
Groton–New London, to New York–JFK and LaGuardia, Boston, Washington (DCA) on de Havilland Canada Twin Otters and
Fokker F27 turboprops. By the mid-1980s the two airlines merged and were then purchased by Hartford-based
Business Express Airlines, which initially flew only from Brainard Airport to Boston and Philadelphia. Business Express established a code-sharing relationship with
Delta Air Lines and became a
Delta Connection feeder airline in 1985. In 1987
Hyannis-based
Provincetown-Boston Airlines (PBA), a commuter airline for
People Express Airlines (which was subsequently merged into
Continental Airlines), began flights to New Haven. PBA operating as
Continental Express flew Embraer EMB-110s from Tweed to Continental's hub at Newark and also to Hyannis and Nantucket, Massachusetts.
USAir Express (operated by commuter air carriers PSA, Piedmont, Allegheny) flew to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Washington, DC area airports, utilizing
Shorts 360,
Dash-8 100/300,
Dornier 328 and
Beechcraft 1900 turboprop aircraft.
21st century Comair (
Delta Connection) began service to HVN in 2004 with three daily flights to
Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport using CRJ-200 aircraft. The airline ceased operations at HVN in January 2006. This left
US Airways Express (
Piedmont) as the only airline at Tweed, which in 2015 became
American Eagle following the
American Airlines-US Airways merger.
United Airlines connects to New Havens' Union Station in downtown New Haven via Amtrak train to/from
Newark Liberty International Airport ; the airport code for New Haven, in this case, is , but United does not fly to Tweed. Today, the airport is operated by AFCO AvPORTS of Dulles, Virginia – a subsidiary of
Goldman Sachs, under contract with the Tweed-New Haven Regional Airport Authority. On April 18, 2019,
Shoreline Aviation – based at the airport – announced a merger with
Cape Air. This popular seaplane service was expected to continue connecting HVN with the
New York Skyports Seaplane Base in New York City. On May 6, 2021, Houston-based low-cost startup
Avelo Airlines announced that it would be opening its first East Coast base at Tweed New Haven. The airline operates a fleet of
Boeing 737-700 aircraft and initial routes from Tweed would be to Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando, and Tampa beginning on November 3, 2021. Before service even started, two more routes were announced to Sarasota and West Palm Beach. Service began as planned on November 3 with the first flight departing New Haven to Orlando. As of 2024, service had been expanded to 25 cities. On August 7, 2024,
Breeze Airways announced it will be launching 10 flights in direct competition with Avelo Airlines current routes from New Haven. This will expand operations from Tweed New Haven by adding more flight operations to the already small airport and increase competition. Breeze Airways will begin operating these new routes out of New Haven in December 2024 and February 2025. When complete, the new, six-gate terminal will replace the existing one on the west side, built in 1931 and functionally obsolete. The project is expected to cost between $70,000,000 and $100,000,000. Some groups of local residents have historically been opposed, saying that expansion would negatively affect the local environment and health of
New Haven and
East Haven residents. In 2002, the
FAA and the State of Connecticut had approved the airport's layout plan which specified the installation of safety overruns and extending the length of Tweed's main runway 02–20. In 2007, the FAA and the State of Connecticut approved the addition of safety overruns to Tweed's main runway. The City of New Haven issued the wetlands and building permits for the project, but officials in East Haven voted to reject the upgrade proposal and deny permits for work on the East Haven (north) side; the Airport Authority and the City of New Haven filed a
lawsuit against the Town of East Haven to allow work on the north overrun, and won. Since the lawsuit, the Airport Authority has completed the work for the $25 million safety overruns on the New Haven (south) side of the airport, as well as the East Haven (north) side. On March 16, 2009, New Haven and East Haven announced that an agreement had been reached, keeping the main runway at , with all obstructions in the approach zones to be removed. Departures are to be capped at 30 per day, with a passenger cap of 180,000 boardings per year. In July 2014, the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority and the
City of New Haven sought federal grant money as a part of the Small Community Air Service Development Program. Language within this air service proposal described the airport's hope to lengthen the main runway past . In the same month, the airport also sought an increase in annually-appropriated
State of Connecticut funds, specifically to pave the runway safety areas in order to expand the length of the runway. This legislation was not enacted and federal money for air service development was not granted. In 2015, Mayor
Toni Harp of New Haven and Rep.
Rosa DeLauro wrote a joint letter to residents pledging their support for runway expansion. Opposition to the airport runway expansion was strong among some local residents, resulting in the formation of a small grassroots campaign. Tensions flared up at community meetings on May 20 and 21, 2015.
East Haven voters and Mayor
Joseph A. Maturo, Jr. continued to oppose Tweed's expansion proposals. In November 2015, the Airport Authority's board of directors voted to sue the State of Connecticut in Federal court.
Tim Larson, former executive director and State Senator for
East Hartford, described Tweed as "an airport at a critical juncture. Commercial carriers are interested in servicing the Southern Connecticut market but will not consider coming to Tweed until the runway is lengthened." He added that "
American (formerly US Airways), may discontinue our existing service when in the next few years they replace the current
Dash-8 aircraft with planes that require a longer runway." Activist residents responded with a new effort against the expansion and a reporting
app for noise, health, and quality of life complaints. East Haven Mayor Maturo described the lawsuit as "foolish". In July 2019, the
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in favor of the airport. In a unanimous opinion, the court ruled that the state statute limiting the length of the runway is preempted by federal law, and is therefore invalid. In December 2019,
Connecticut Attorney General
William Tong submitted an appeal to the
Supreme Court of the United States seeking a challenge to the runway expansion. On March 23, 2020, the
Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear Connecticut's appeal to the proposed runway expansion. Having exhausted all legal options, the state can no longer prevent the airport from expanding its runway and adding additional services. On May 6, 2021, Avelo Airlines announced that their new East Coast hub would be located at Tweed and would hire 100 new employees to be based in New Haven. Avelo Airlines announced that flights would begin in the third quarter of 2021. It was also announced that AFCO AvPORTS would build a new terminal on the East Haven side of the airport in addition to expanding the length of the runway. Service began with flights to four destinations in Florida, but it quickly expanded to 14 destinations in eight states. During Avelo's first full year of service, over 340,000 enplanements were recorded, an all-time record for the airport. The growth in passenger totals further highlighted the need for the expansion, with the existing terminal experiencing overcrowding issues and no longer being able to efficiently handle the airport's needs. The airport received grants in 2024 for the new terminal's construction. ==Facilities and aircraft==