Tag: Tweed New Haven

Avelo to Exit Deportation Biz

by Thomas Breen, Jan. 7, 2026, New Haven Independent

Avelo Airlines plans to stop running deportation flights for the Trump administration later this month after deciding that its participation in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program is too complex and costly to continue.

Photo: Chris Volpe

Avelo spokesperson Courtney Goff confirmed that coming move for the budget airline in an email comment sent to the Independent on Wednesday.

“Avelo will close the base at AZA [in Mesa, Arizona] on January 27 and will conclude participation in the DHS charter program,” Goff wrote. “The program provided short-term benefits

At an April 30 anti-Avelo protest at Tweed.

but ultimately did not deliver enough consistent and predictable revenue to overcome its operational complexity and costs.”

AZ Family, a local news outlet in Phoenix, first reported on Avelo’s decision to end its deportation flights, which began out of Arizona last May — prompting a New Haven-based boycott movement, condemnation from politicians and activists across the country, and frequent protests outside of Tweed New Haven Airport, where Avelo has been flying direct commercial flights (but not deportation flights) since November 2021.

“The big lesson here is that human suffering is not profitable,” said Pastor Jack Perkins Davidson of Hamden’s Spring Glen Church in a phone interview with the Independent Wednesday. “I hope Avelo and all corporations in the U.S. have learned that valuable lesson, that collaborating with injustice and collaborating with racism, though it may for them provide the allure of short-term gain, are empty promises. There is no benefit.”

[To read the article in its entirety, see https://bit.ly/3NsEIN2]

Environmental Assessment of Proposed Tweed Airport Expansion

by Save the Sound

The Federal Aviation Administration has released an environmental assessment of the proposed expansion of Tweed-New Haven Airport, which Save the Sound attorneys are currently reviewing. We will continue to argue for a full environmental impact statement — a more rigorous and detailed environmental analysis.

Among our concerns: wetland loss, impacts of flooding due to sea level rise, and the environmental justice impacts of pollution on nearby overburdened neighborhoods.

Learn more and add your voice at the public hearing April 1, 1:30 p.m. at East Haven High School, East Haven.

Tweed Airport Update 7 p.m. to dusk, Thursday, July 8, Fort Hale Park Pavillion, 20 Woodward Ave.

There will be a Tweed Airport Update meeting on from 7 p.m. to dusk, Thursday, July 8, at the Fort Hale Park Pavillion, 20 Woodward Ave. Mayor Justin Elicker and Airport Director Sean Scanlon will explain the 43-year privatization deal.

Members of 10,000 Hawks, quality of life advocacy group plan to raise the following harm reduction & mitigation plan:

  1. Voluntary limit of flight times to fly only between 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., as allowed under FAA rules, 14 CFR Part 150, and consistent with City of New Haven noise ordinance;
  2. Air pollution monitoring & mitigation efforts for ultrafine particulates, soot, ground-level ozone, VOCs and Nitrogen Oxide, health monitoring of residents for emphysema, chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic headaches, and respiratory problems;
  3. Noise pollution monitoring, a new comprehensive sound study, remedying those homes whose past soundproofing has been problematic, and health monitoring of residents for hypertension, hearing impairment, heart problems, sleep disturbance, and irritation;
  4. Addressing freight planes & overall #s of airplanes overhead, strict oversight of flight paths, again with health monitoring of residents for hypertension and cardiovascular issues; 5
  5. Addressing impacts of residential flooding, preventing street flooding, and creation of a coastal resilience plan for Tweed coastal floodplain; and
  6. Creating a solid traffic calming plan, esp. before the East Haven terminal might be constructed.

With new Boeing 737-700s landing at 95 decibels, and prevailing winds at Tweed shifting toward every neighborhood, we must work together to address air and noise pollution.

For more information on 10,000 Hawks, email 10000hawks@gmail.com or visit them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/10000hawks.

10,000 Hawks launches to address quality of life issues

by Rachel Heerema

The name 10,000 Hawks honors the numbers of raptors in the annual hawk migration that takes place over Tweed airspace & our East Haven, East Shore, and Fair Haven neighborhoods. 10,000 Hawks addresses quality of life issues, including air quality, noise pollution, traffic calming, walkability, habitat, long-term thinking, and planning for our neighborhood, children, and grandchildren.

The immediate threat is the proposed expansion of Tweed-New Haven Airport with additional runway paving and siting a new terminal in East Haven wetlands. These environmental degradations will have generational impacts.

Our first action is to call for a public meeting to learn the details of this profit-making giveaway of our public lands. Sign the petition and get involved: https://www.change.org/10000-Hawks-deal.

Contact Rachel Heerema for more information, 203-747-8606, rachel@greenrachel.com.

Tweed Airport and Climate Change: The Environment Is Both Local and Global

by Jeffry Larson, PAR Subscriber, CT Green Party member

Tweed Airport astride the New Haven-East Haven city line has long been an environmental concern to its neighbors because of the noise and pollution it creates. So they have organized a group, stoptweed.org, to limit the airport’s adverse impact. Unfortunately, they have been dismissed as NIMBYs by the corporate and academic jet-setters who find Tweed a convenient amenity.

The City of New Haven has recently abrogated its agreement to limit the length of the runways at Tweed Airport, and, with the state’s permission, plans to increase air traffic there. So, in addition to more local noise and pollution, there will be an increase in the amount of jet fuel emissions–one of the worst greenhouse gases–being poured into the atmosphere.

Tweed is a low-lying shoreline facility, vulnerable to rising sea levels: this would be one of the risks of a proposal hastening catastrophic climate.

Last fall the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued another report on the state of climate change. Denialists predictably dismissed it as “alarmist.” Even climate change activists take its conclusions as somehow assuring us that we have 12 more years to mend our fossil-fuel ways. But the IPCC has been severely criticized by actual researchers for being consistently overly cautious and loath to emphasize the real urgency of our plight. We do not have a guaranteed 12 years to forestall or mitigate climate change. Some leading scientists even believe we’ve already passed the carbon budget turning point.

Apparently, no environmental group or politician or journalist has expressed concern about this. They need to join with local grassroots groups. It is the jet-setters who are the NIMBYs here. As the director of Transport & Environment, one of the mainstream anti-aviation groups in Europe, says, “Air travel is the fastest and cheapest way to fry the planet.”

Ask your local elected officials, environmental groups or reporters why they are not raising questions about this proposed increase in our carbon footprint.

jeffrylarson73@yahoo.com