NEW HAVEN, Conn. — One cold Thursday afternoon this month, the small airport in New Haven, Connecticut, was bustling.
A line of cars stretched from the terminal, down the main road and into a neighborhood. Inside the airport, a new, second-floor bar was crowded as passengers on the floor below walked through a gate into one of three waiting planes.
Five years ago, Tweed-New Haven Airport would have been much quieter. Back then, it hosted about a half-dozen daily flights, mostly short American Airlines jaunts to and from Philadelphia. This month, about 30 flights a day were connecting the airport to more than two dozen destinations…