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A Sample of What is to Come

On Easter morning, a jet taking off from Tweed New Haven Airport woke us at 6:42 a.m. As residents of Short Beach, Branford, the airport expansion 3.5 miles away has become a significant disruption to daily life. Increased traffic, noise, and destruction of the environment are having an indelible deleterious effect on the quality of life in the surrounding neighborhoods on the shoreline. As a small community airport, Tweed previously co-existed as an innocuous resource within a residential neighborhood hosting mostly private prop and commercial planes and corporate jets.

While we have taken several trips on Avelo to Fort Myers, Orlando, and Fort Lauderdale, and it is no doubt convenient for travelers in greater New Haven, the proposed expansion is too aggressive for the footprint. The region would be better served through more robust commuter service to the recently upgraded Bradley International Airport.

The past 18 months have offered a sample of what is to come should the expansion continue. What is cause for concern now is how easily some are willing to trade this region’s most precious resource, arguably a serene shoreline, for cheap flights to Florida.

John D. Allen

Branford