Tweed New Haven gears up for Breeze service as Breeze offers $29 fares

NEW HAVEN – Tweed New Haven Regional Airport is working hard to get ready for the Dec. 10 start of Breeze Airways service, which will make it the first time in 17 years that Tweed is served by more than one airline, officials said .

Preparations for Breeze include both organizational coordination and some physical improvements, airport officials said. Tweed is already served by the low-cost carrier Avelo Airlines.

“Most of it just comes down to layering the schedule so you’re not landing three planes and two airlines at once,” Avport spokesman Andrew King said.

As Tweed prepares to accommodate Breeze — which already serves Connecticut fliers from Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks — Breeze is making a statement to the southern Connecticut market Tweed serves that it is open for business.

It plans to offer $29 fares on eight routes to and from New Haven in conjunction with Black Friday, a Breeze spokesman said. The deal also includes five Hartford routes.

“We know Connecticut travelers want an increased product offering that allows them to choose the experience that best suits their needs,” said David Neeleman, Breeze Airways founder and CEO. “We are delighted to bring more travel options to the Tweed and look forward to the launch of the Breeze service on 10 December.”

Breeze will offer weekly nonstop flights to various Florida locations. Fort Myers kicks off on December 10th, followed by Orlando and West Palm Beach on December 11th and Vero Beach on December 13th.

Breeze, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, will also add nonstop service to six additional destinations in February, including Charleston, SC; Jacksonville, Fla.; Norfolk, Va.; Raleigh-Durham, NC, Richmond, Va., and Sarasota-Bradenton, Fla., the company previously announced.

The $29 prices will be on sale November 29th through December 1st. Tickets are for travel from Dec. 4 to May 13, 2025, with blackouts Dec. 20-Jan. 5, 14 February-Feb. 25 and 10 March-20 April, Breeze spokesman Gareth Edmonson-Jones said.

The Tweed routes include Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Orlando, Sarasota-Bradenton, West Palm Beach, Raleigh Durham, Norfolk and Richmond. They will be offered from Bradley on flights to and from Daytona Beach, Jacksonville, Savannah, Coastal Carolina/New Bern, NC and Wilmington, NC, he said.

A formal announcement is expected on Monday, he said.

Meanwhile, the two airlines and Tweed officials met Nov. 10 so the airlines could coordinate, said Jeremy Nielson, airport chief for Tweed’s operator, Goldman Sachs-owned Avports LLC.

“We’re scheduled to have a full-scale practice on Dec. 4 … just to see if there’s anything that needs to be adjusted (or) any concerns that might come up before opening day,” Nielson told Tweed New Haven The Airport Authority at its regular monthly meeting.

In recent weeks, Tweed has also made a number of physical improvements, including doubling the capacity of the bathrooms in the arrivals section of Tweed’s terminal and building a new bridge from which to control all terminal and ramp operations, Nielson said.

It also built a new baggage claim office, repaved the terminal ramp where airlines park their planes and installed 1,700 feet of new fencing at the airport, Nielson said.

The airport also hired a new terminal manager and eight ramp controllers, he said.

Tweed recently opened a new bar and restaurant on the second floor of the terminal, called The Grazing Goat, Nielson said.

The last time Tweed had more than one airline providing air service was in 2007, when the Pan Am Clipper Connection, operated by Boston-Maine Airways, offered direct flights to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, Hanscom Field and Pease International Airport for a little over four months.

It was in addition to the service of what was then US Airways Express, which in 2015 became American Eagle following the merger between American Airlines and US Airways.

Breeze will begin his service as a battle over Tweed’s future expansion continues to rage.

Save the Sound and East Haven are appealing the Federal Aviation Administration’s “finding of no significant impact” in Tweed’s proposed expansion. The project will include extending the runway and building a new terminal on the east side of the airport with access from East Haven.

This month, Save the Sound filed a brief with East Haven in the case.

“The Federal Aviation Administration has failed to meaningfully analyze and mitigate significant impacts of the proposed expansion, despite the fact that the airport is located in a floodplain, in a residential neighborhood and in a state-designated environmental fair area,” Jessica Roberts, staff attorney for Save the Sound, said in a statement.

Save the Sound and East Haven contend that the FAA’s final draft environmental assessment had deficiencies previously pointed out by federal and state agencies and “incorrectly concluded that the expansion of the airport would have no significant environmental impact,” Roberts wrote in the release.

“In our brief, we argued that the final EA failed to consider the actual number of passengers this extension would bring to Tweed,” Roberts wrote. “While public statements and certain parts of the EA stated that it would attract more airlines and passengers, the EA concluded that the number of passengers would remain constant and flights would decrease.”

The map also mentioned that the EA did not include an analysis of the taxiway to be built, but would require filling in tidal wetlands, she wrote.

“We also argued that the FAA further failed to meaningfully analyze localized flooding, stormwater pollution, and wetland impacts, despite numerous calls from experts asking them to do so,” Roberts wrote. “The final EA was vague and inadequate in its discussion of stormwater and wetland impacts.”

Save the Sound and East Haven are asking the court to require the FAA to create a more comprehensive and detailed environmental impact statement, including the necessary mitigation measures.

“Rising sea levels and intensifying storms put residents in surrounding neighborhoods at risk, necessitating a meaningful analysis of these factors under current law,” she wrote.