The Out-Of-Towners

It would always annoy me when someone who was going on a trip would tell me they were flying out of "Hartford."

"Oh?," I would reply. "You're flying out of Brainard?," referring to Hartford's general aviation airport on the banks of the Connecticut River.

"Oh, no," they would correct me, "Bradley."

And while I would nod in mock understanding, in reality I'm thinking, "Of course, Bradley, you dolt! In Windsor Locks!"

Even the Flight Radar 24 website gets it, identifying Bradley's location as "Windsor Locks," not Hartford (although the old hard-copy airline timetables identified Bradley as serving "Hartford, CT/Springfield, MA.")

I know, I know, call me petty, call me a nudge. In fact, get in line. But there's a reason I'm that way.

Say what you will about Tweed-New Haven Regional Airport, but when folks say they're flying to or from "New Haven," they really are flying to and from New Haven!

The airport, well, half of it, anyway, is located in New Haven. The boundary line between New Haven and East Haven runs right down the sole remaining runway, 2-20.

Tweed is five miles from the center of New Haven. Pretty close as commercial airports go, making it very convenient for anyone traveling by plane.

This is usually not the case with a number of commercial airports, many of which have their airports nowhere near the cities they're supposed to serve.

Bradley is one example. The airport is 15 miles north of Hartford and 17 miles south of Springfield, Massachusetts.

Bridgeport's Sikorsky Memorial Airport is located completely within the town of Stratford.

Westchester County Airport, while listed as serving White Plains, is located in West Harrison, N. Y.

And while both of New York City's airports are technically within city limits (in the borough of Queens), "New York" usually means Manhattan, some 15-plus miles away.(Newark Liberty, of course, is across the Hudson.)

Boston's Logan International Airport is located in East Boston, while Providence's T. F. Green Airport is located in the town of Warwick, to the south.

Anyone flying to New Orleans will land at the Louis Armstrong Airport in the town of Kenner.

And then there's the Cincinnati International Airport which, not only isn't in Cincinnati, it isn't even in Ohio! It's across the river in the town of Covington, Kentucky, ergo the airport identifier of "CVG."

From the very dawn of heavier-than-air flight, it was understood that airplanes need space to operate. Lots of space. The folks who built airports knew that, wisely choosing not to locate them near any structures that may impede aircraft operation. You go where there's open space. And more often than not, that meant locating your city's airport in another municipality. But, as was the case with Tweed, "far out" wasn't far out enough, and the postwar suburban development led to the myriad number of houses that sprang up around the airport and, while somewhat abated, continues to this very day.

For Tweed, which serves not only New Haven, but Southern Connecticut, there are changes coming, with plans for a brand spanking new passenger terminal and additional parking to be built on the East Haven side of the field, so there may be a case to be made somewhere down the road that the airport is technically "in" East Haven. I imagine the identifier will still be "HVN."

So, what's East Haven's take on all this?

The Tweed Airport Authority includes several members from East Haven on the board, including Ken Dagliere.

Now, I usually don't find much agreement with what Mr. Dagliere has to say. I get it that he represents folks who may be impacted by the airport's operations. But at a recent Airport Authority meeting, Mr. Dagliere did raise an issue with which I could find some common ground.

He stated that if Tweed is to be a truly regional airport (which it is), the other towns of New Haven County should be represented as well. Not just East Haven, but North Haven, West Haven, Branford, Hamden, etc, and that the new terminal's environment should include scenes such as Sleeping Giant State Park, Savin Rock, the Trolley Museum, and other characteristics of the county.

He may be on to something. A number of airports have undergone name changes to confirm their locale status. The above-mentioned CVG airport is the "Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport." Bentonville, Arkansas's airport is the "Northwest Arkansas National Airport." And if you fly to Fort Myers, Florida, you'll land at the "Southwest Florida International Airport." The Manchester, New Hampshire, airport now calls itself the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport. Mind you, Manchester is 50-plus miles from Boston, but hey, it's their airport.

Mr. Dagliere went on to say that perhaps a name change is also in order. Rather than "Tweed-New Haven Regional Airport," maybe something along the lines of "Tweed-New Haven County Airport," or, "Tweed-Southern Connecticut Regional Airport." I am in complete agreement, although I would still like to see the "William Celentano Drive" leading up to the "Toni Harp Passenger Terminal," as those two mayors did the most to improve the city's airport.

So, if you haven't flown out of Tweed yet (yeah, I know, some of you are boycotting Avelo, but Breeze Airways flies out of there, too), you may want to try our close, convenient airport.

You don't even have to drive. It's only $1.75 on Connecticut Transit's # 206 bus (although I expect the #204 will serve the new terminal on the East Haven side when it's built).

[C'mon, admit it; there's stuff about Tweed you didn't know before. Well, there's plenty more informative and entertaining Tweed stuff in "As The Beacon Turns," and, "Tweed Facts," both on Facebook.]