Apr. 4—BRIDGEPORT — The city is seeking an advantage in the debate over which airport — Bridgeport's Sikorsky or New Haven's Tweed — should receive state support and, more importantly, state and federal investment to expand post-coronavirus pandemic services and flights.
Mayor Joe Ganim's administration and a pair of Sikorsky's tenants are moving ahead with commissioning a $47,000 study of the airport's potential by the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis at the University of Connecticut.
Fred Carstensen, the center's director, told Hearst Connecticut Media this week that scrutinizing whether Sikorsky or Tweed is better situated for increased air travel is "not officially part of our remit." But, he acknowledged, "It's inherently in the background."
That is thanks to Gov. Ned Lamont. In the fall of 2019 — about six months before the global coronavirus crisis struck Connecticut — Lamont unveiled a transportation initiative that essentially set up a competition between Sikorsky and Tweed.
"I want to make up our mind on this this year so we can get going," Lamont told Hearst Connecticut Media during a visit to Bridgeport in February 2020. That was just over a month before his and his staff's attention turned to battling the spread of COVID-19, which included temporarily shuttering the economy and limiting travel to keep the public home.
Sikorsky Manager Michelle Muoio on Tuesday told a joint teleconference of the Bridgeport City Council's transportation and economic development committees, "I'm not sure where that effort (Lamont's review of the airports) is now, but with COVID it's not likely in the highest list of priorities."
Muoio went before the council committees seeking support to spend $7,000 on the UCONN center's economic analysis of Sikorsky. She said her two largest tenants — Atlantic Aviation and Three Wing Aviation — would split the $40,000 balance.
Muoio told committee members, who ultimately approved the $7,000, the primary goal is to show what the city, region and Connecticut can "get out of the airport if additional investment was made. What kind of additional value could we bring?"
She said the decision was in part inspired by the "idea that was initially proposed by the governor's office in their transportation plan ... to evaluate what would be the better investment between Tweed and Sikorsky."
"Certainly I can tout the airport and our proximity to Fairfield County and the city ( Bridgeport) being the most populous in Connecticut," Muoio said. "But it would be very helpful for this independent resource and expert entity to take that a little further so the city has data to base decisions on."
David Lehman, Lamont's economic development commissioner, on Thursday said the administration was aware of Bridgeport's effort to engage Carstensen and his staff and "very interested" in seeing the eventual findings.
Lehman said while the pandemic has significantly impacted air traffic at regional and large airports, the Lamont administration is still a "big believer" in the importance of convenient flights to and out of the southern and southwestern region of the state.
"Both at Tweed and Sikorsky you've seen incremental movement thinking about the future," he said. "Is there the possibility of having multiple viable airports? I think more work needs to be done on that. ... We're continuing to stay close to both airports and ask for and receive more information on what (they) could ultimately look like."
The Ganim administration, after having initially considered trying to sell Stratford-based Sikorsky because it operates at a $500,000 annual deficit, has over the last few years instead focused on returning regular passenger service there. Currently private planes and charters use the two runways.
"I definitely see that we could bring back commercial service," Muoio told the two council committees Tuesday, suggesting "low cost" family and business travel to Washington D.C., Florida and the Midwest.
That goal is outlined in a new Sikorsky master plan recently submitted to and approved by the Federal Aviation Administration. Tweed, meanwhile, has its own master plan pending before the FAA to likewise position that facility for future growth.
Tweed in 2019 won a decision in the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, saying a 2009 state law limiting the size of the runways is unenforceable and opening up a path for the airport to expand on its own terms.
Lehman emphasized the importance of engaging the private sector "to make sure folks that are perhaps more involved in the industry agree this is a good investment. ... The state plays a role there, but it's important the private sector is also at the table."
Ganim and his aides in 2019 hoped to lure a new airline established by JetBlue founder David Neeleman of New Canaan to build a new terminal at Sikorsky. But the FAA-required runway upgrades could not be done in time to seal that deal.
Muoio told the council committees that the UCONN center's analysis "might open up other doors, other financial opportunities."
Tweed is similarly aiming for an unidentified private investor to fund its proposed new terminal.
Councilwoman Maria Pereira, who has argued most Bridgeport residents "don't care about" Sikorsky, questioned whether the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis' work would be objective given Bridgeport and two tenants are paying for it.
"Are they cherry-picking data and numbers that will reflect the outcome they want the study to produce?" Pereira asked Muoio.
"It's a legitimate question," Carstensen, who was not part of Tuesday's teleconference, told Hearst Wednesday. He said it is not uncommon for such concerns about bias to be raised, and defended the center's work as "entirely transparent and fully replicable."
Carstensen said on occasion the center has had to tell overly optimistic clients "we don't think you have a good case because we've run the numbers. You can't make the case you think you could." But, he added, 'That's relatively rare because, in most cases, people have a fairly good sense of what the upside potential is."
The UCONN center has previously produced reports on both Sikorsky in 1998 and 2007, and Tweed in 1999 and in 2002.
"We have a lot of experience looking at airports," Carstensen said.
He was also upfront that he believes in the role of Connecticut's airports "to improve our economic performance, which has been absolutely dismal. ... It's a really important issue."
Robert Christoph, Jr. and his father are the owners of Three Wing Aviation. They are also the developers for much of the harborfront along Bridgeport's East Side — the Steelpointe Harbor project — and East End near Stratford's border.
"This (study) is an idea of ours and the airport to move this asset forward," Christoph said Thursday. "It's a great piece of infrastructure for Bridgeport and Stratford. I just want to see it continue to grow (and) hit its true potential."
State Rep. Joseph Gresko, D- Stratford, is an aide to Ganim but also represents the Lordship section of Stratford, some of whose residents over the years have been opposed to additional growth at Sikorsky. Similarly people living near Tweed harbor reservations about talk of expansion there.
"It's a valid concern by the people that live down there," Gresko said of Lordship. However he believes such opposition "has quieted down" in part because of technological advancements that help reduce plane noise.
And Bridgeport a few years ago agreed not to extend Sikorsky's runways, Gresko noted.
Gresko said he will be keeping a close eye on Carstensen's economic study. He understands the need to get the airport out of "the red" but is also looking for any related impact on traffic and the environment.
"Commercial service to me is there might be four, six flights out of there a day," he said. "It's not going to be something that's going to turn into even Westchester (Airport in New York), I don't think."
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