Courts have long held that the Federal Aviation Act ("FAAct") impliedly preempts the entire field of air safety. Relying on this well-established principle, the Second Circuit, in Tweed-New Haven Airport Authority v. Tong, held that a state statute that prohibited an airport from extending its runway impacted air safety and, therefore, was field preempted by the FAAct.
At only 5,600 feet in length, the primary runway at the Tweed-New Haven Airport is one of the shortest runways at any commercial airport in the United States. The short length of the runway limits operations at the airport. For instance, to prevent certain flights from exceeding the weight limitations that ensure aircraft can safely take-off and land on such a short runway, carriers must leave seats unfilled. To address this problem, the Airport developed a plan to extend the runway, which the FAA approved. Apparently unhappy with the expansion plans, the State of Connecticut passed a statute that prohibited the Airport from extending the runway (the "Runway Statute").
The Airport challenged the Runway Statute, asserting among other arguments that the FAAct preempted it. The trial court held that the Airport lacked standing to sue and that, even if it had standing, the FAAct did not preempt the Runway Statute.
On appeal, the Second Circuit reversed. After concluding that the Airport had standing to challenge the Runway Statute, the Court observed that the statute directly impacted air safety: "'the length of the runway has a direct bearing on the weight load and passenger capacity that can be safely handled on any given flight.' . . . The Statute has limited the number of passengers that can safely occupy planes leaving the Airport by preventing planes from taking off at maximum capacity. For these safety reasons, carriers are forced to cut back on an ad-hoc basis the number of passengers that can safely be carried, the amount of baggage they can bring with them, and the total weight of luggage that can be loaded." Because the Runway Statute intruded into the field of air safety, the Court concluded that the FAAct preempted it. Tweed-New Haven Airport Authority v. Tong, 930 F.3d 65 (2d Cir. 2019).
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