MEL 38 02 02

KSNA (John Wayne/Orange County, CA) is 5700' and has been served by Alaska, Southwest, United, American, Frontier, etc., for many years.

ninerdriver

I'll add a little more context.

You'll now see more diversions from Tweed for a few reasons.

Obviously, Avelo operates more flights than American (or PSA) did.

Secondly, PHL and HVN are pretty close. If the weather was crappy in HVN, then the weather was probably crappy in PHL, and that would usually lead to a cancelled flight in both directions. With Avelo, the weather is more likely to change en route when your flight length is three hours, as opposed to forty-five minutes.

Along those same lines, HVN is a base for Avelo. They need those planes there. PSA didn't need those planes there, so they'd be more likely to cancel a flight with marginal weather.

All of that said, as another poster stated, there are rigid rules about how close an airplane can get to an airport without seeing it. There are also rules about required weather to even start an approach. If weather required at landing isn't there when a plane would start an approach, then a plane might divert without even attempting an approach, depending on the forecast.

Another thing to note: the 737 has far more safety features (most notably, autobrakes) than the CRJ-200s that served HVN for years. I've landed a fully loaded CRJ-200 on 5600 foot runways, and it's pretty sketchy. I'd take a 737 in that situation any day of the week.

Full disclosure: I have family that lives in East Haven near the threshold of Runway 20.

AlexisTX

Fully loaded CRJ-200 on 5600 runway is not sketchy! Maybe ur

ninerdriver

10/10 for originality.

Now you're taking that fully loaded CRJ-200 out of a 5600 foot runway. It's 95 degrees out. You're full thrust, standing, and bleeds closed on takeoff. You hit V1 a little less than halfway down the runway. Your wheels leave the pavement about 500 feet from the departure end. You feel like you're flying the vodka burner in that YouTube video.

Good luck with that Breeze interview, kid.

Pony Express

Pilot here living 2 towns over. I'll add just a little bit, and try to avoid getting too far in the weeds. As someone above said, Tweed is a smaller airport and has less advanced options for airplanes to make approaches when the weather is bad. Only one runway (technically, pilots might say it has 2 runways since we can takeoff and land facing either direction, depending on the weather) limits the operation as well. I wouldn't have any concerns about Avelo running a safe operation. I work for another airline, but they are held to the same training, maintenance, etc. Standards as Delta, American United. The diversions are an inconvenience, but by no means safety related. That is just the inevitable outcome of having a relatively small operation. The plus side is you avoid the drive to New York or Boston, traffic , parking, etc.

I have been flying small aircraft in this area for 15 years and during early-mid spring and early-mid fall, fog can show up unexpectedly and move pretty quickly. The one avelo flight that landed likely made it in shortly before the fog rolled in. I have seen fog banks move miles inland in just a matter of a few minutes with the right combination of wind and temperature this time of year.

Hope this answers your question. I would be comfortable putting a family member on an avelo flight out of tweed in a heartbeat, in fact my Parents have flown on them multiple times.

chihuahua

https://www.wtnh.com/news/connecticu...sed-expansion/

"“There’s just too much environmental injustice happening now with the air pollution, the models of plans they’re using for noise, and all the uncertainties that are going to happen to residential properties,” Lorena Venegas of East Haven said."

LOL. These are the morons that are upset that they bought houses next to an airport, and are mad that the airport is an airport. The current regime is fully onboard the woke/climate cult crazy train, however, so I'm sure the FAA will say the airport can't be expanded because the weather is bad.

No matter the length of the runway, that hill to the NW of the airport probably makes it so that they couldn't put in a CATII or really improve anything as far as lower minimums, but it would be an improvement to have more parking and an actual terminal and of course 1000ft of runway is never a bad thing. I wouldn't expect any of that anytime soon, though.

jkay

Thank you all for the informative answers to my question regarding Avelo/Tweed safety.

I'm hoping that Avelo can make a go of it at HVN, it is a great convenience not having to drive an hour
to Bradley or any of the NY options, even a bigger pain.

The homeowners surrounding Tweed of course are putting up a stink, but as was noted, tough noogies,
like they didn't realize they bought a house next to an airport, spare me! FWIW, the local politics are looking
good for an airport expansion and even lengthening the runway. I think there is finally enough
momentum to get it done.

JayRalstonSmith

Again, you’re presupposing that today’s rates are the new normal. Look at the “nearly a century” of flying and tell me how much predictability there is in it. There isn’t. It’s cyclical. Hub and spoke may be here to stay at the legacies but guess what, it’s only since the mid 80s that we’ve really seen fortress hubs. Look at the number of carriers that have disappeared, bankrupted, been merged or acquired. Careers in this industry are hardly “predictable.”

So yeah go ahead and sh#t on Avelo (I’m at a competitor by the way) and the ULCC P2P model, but at least recognize what you’re saying.

JayRalstonSmith

The best thing that could happen for Lorena is for them to raze East Haven and build a mega airport right up to the Branford line. It would improve East Haven exponentially.

JayRalstonSmith

Ok but you said you “landed a fully loaded” CRJ on a 5600’ runway and it was “sketchy.” So was landing it or taking it off “sketchy?” Because I find it hard to believe landing it was “sketchy” but then again I’ve never seen you fly an airplane so who knows…