A Breeze Airways jet, right, arrives next to Avelo Airlines at Tweed New Haven Regional Airport in New Haven, Conn., Tuesday, December 10, 2024. Breeze Airways began service to and from Tweed on Tuesday, joining Avelo Airlines and restoring Tweed to a two-airline airport for the first time in 17 years.
Dave Zajac/Hearst Connecticut Media
NEW HAVEN — Tweed New Haven Regional Airport will distribute 815 air purifiers to nearby residents in both New Haven and East Haven for free as part of a new residential indoor air program in response to community concerns, airport officials said.
The high-efficiency air purifiers will go to 496 eligible households in New Haven, which owns the airport, and 319 eligible households in East Haven, which borders it, Tweed officials said.
“This is about partnership,” said Michael Jones, CEO of The New HVN, the subsidiary of airport operator Avports that runs Tweed under a long-term contract with the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority.
“When the community speaks up — from residents to researchers — we believe airports can and should be part of the solution,” Jones said in a news release.
Neighbors hope for an improvement, which they said is needed — but not necessarily convinced the air purifiers will accomplish that.
“You’re giving us air purifiers for our house, which is telling me that the air outside our houses is no good,” said Lisa Ventura-McHugh, who lives directly across Burr Street from the airport in New Haven’s Morris Cove section. “We’re already stuck in our homes.”
Under the program, each eligible household will receive a medical-grade HEPA filter designed to capture 99.9% of airborne particles as small as 0.1 microns.
The units are effective in spaces up to 1,400 square feet and are widely used in healthcare, commercial and educational settings, the release stated. The purifiers’ technology is backed by a lifetime guarantee and has been recognized by Consumer Reports, Forbes, and the Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America, Avports said.
The program is being unveiled as Tweed waits for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to rule on its environmental application for a proposed expansion of the airport, including a runway extension and a new terminal on the East Haven side.
That application by the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority and The New HVN came 16 months after the Federal Aviation Administration approved Tweed’s plan, issuing a “Finding of No Significant Impact.”
Tweed has seen continued growth since Avelo Airlines began flying out of it in 2021, with Breeze Airways joining Avelo at Tweed in December.
Laura McHugh echoed the concerns of her wife, Ventura-McHugh, and said the purifiers send a sign to the neighbors that the air is not good as is.
“What it does is confine us in our house,” McHugh said.
McHugh and her wife, Lisa Ventura-McHugh, were among several dozen neighbors who heard about the air purifiers at the annual community meeting at Nathan Hale School on Townsend Avenue.
McHugh, whose house is directly across from where people line up to pick up arriving passengers also has to contend with people who want to park in front of her house — or even in her driveway — while they wait.
She said she’s not sure if the air purifiers might help. She said the soundproof doors and windows officials gave them before help with the noise but it’s still loud.
“It’s unfortunate, but we can’t open our windows,” McHugh said. “It was all right when we had six, seven flights. But now they’re going to have 32 flights. The traffic here is disgusting. There’s times when you can even get out of your house.”
“This is a nice neighborhood. It was a beautiful neighborhood, and now the planes are ruining it,” McHugh said.
Ventura-McHugh said they should close Tweed.
“The airport does not belong here,” she said, pointing to the “ridiculous” amount of flights and the idling cars.
Airport officials are sympathetic.
“We understand that the changes at the airport have impacted residents living nearby and are doing what we can to help lessen any impact,” Jones said. “At last year’s community meeting residents requested air quality monitoring and air purifiers.”
Air quality monitors, which have now been in operation for more than nine months, have shown that air quality near the airport is largely the same as air quality in other areas of New Haven, Jones said.
“We want to be responsive to residents’ concerns and are happy to support this program to provide indoor air purifiers to eligible residents around the airport,” Jones said.
Avports officials said the program reflects ongoing collaboration with neighbors and local stakeholders, including the city’s Environmental Advisory Council, as well as responding to the work of academic researchers, such as Cristina H. Hudda, of Tufts University, whose studies have brought renewed focus to ultrafine particles.
New Haven neighbor Gloria Bellacicco, who lives on Lighthouse Road, said she’s grateful for the air purifiers but airport officials have yet to share a map of who would get the air purifiers.
“They said the residents would be notified by mail,” she said. “We waited an entire year for them; they were promised at the last meeting. Thankfully they partnered with the city to get it done.”
East Haven resident Patricia Ranney, who lives on Thompson Avenue, said the air purifiers were a good idea for people who use air conditioning and so have their windows closed.
“But I have my windows open, so I’m not sure that it’ll make much difference — because I like the air coming in from the outside,” she said.
The program is fully funded and managed by Avports. All eligible residents will be contacted directly in late July or early August with information on enrollment and delivery, officials said.
This program was inspired by a community presentation hosted by the Environmental Advisory Council and Hudda in 2024, officials said.
During the presentation, Hudda said that while federal agencies are responsible for regulation, airports could help and play a meaningful role by offering medical-grade HEPA filters.
Tweed is now delivering on that idea, officials said.
The air purifier program is part of Tweed’s broader environmental strategy, the release said. The airport also is transitioning its ground fleet to zero-emissions vehicles and has applied for grants to add electric mowers and a zero-emissions airfield sweeper.
A hydrogen fueling dispenser and an additional EV charger are currently in development, the release stated.
June 16, 2025
Reporter
Mark Zaretsky is a reporter with the New Haven Register. Zaretsky is a Chicago native and longtime New Haven resident and an award-winning reporter and music writer for the New Haven Register and Hearst Connecticut Media Group. His beats include East Haven and Branford, regional issues and occasional blues and roots music stories. He also makes a point of knowing where all the good ethnic and hole-in-the-wall restaurants, bars and bakeries are — and is an unapologetic Cubs, Bears, Blackhawks and Bulls fan. In addition to his work as a journalist, Zaretsky is a front man for The Cobalt Rhythm Kings and The Chicago Dawgs and occasionally performs with Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Mark Naftalin and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.