Category: Business travel

Announced in August, Breeze Airways is set to start operating from Tweed-New Haven Airport, offering business travelers and vacationgoers a range of new flight options. Beginning in December 2024, the airline will provide nonstop flights to four Florida destinations: Fort Myers, Orlando, West Palm Beach, and Vero Beach. Flights to additional destinations will begin in February 2025, including Charleston (SC), Jacksonville (FL), Norfolk (VA), Raleigh-Durham (NC), Richmond (VA), and Sarasota-Bradenton (FL).  Read More

According to a recent report by TravelPerk, 61% of U.S. companies plan to increase their travel budgets this year, recognizing the dual benefits of revenue generation and bolstering employee morale. 

The report underscores that the C-suite executives are increasingly acknowledging the pivotal role of business travel in delivering a solid return on investment. On average, these leaders attribute about a third of their companies’ 2023 sales growth to the direct impact of in-person meetings. This trend highlights the indispensable nature of face-to-face interactions in building and maintaining client relationships, with a compelling 95 percent of leaders indicating that their company would likely lose customers without such in-person engagements. Read More

Opposed to the crowds, long lines, lengthy walks and traffic congestion encountered at other airports frequented by Connecticut and New York-based travelers, Tweed New Haven Airport (HVN) offers a smooth and simple alternative hometown airport experience. Yet while HVN’s adjacency to multiple major highways and commuter railways make it Connecticut’s most convenient and easily accessible airport, Tweed New Haven parking presents challenges that can throw a wrench into your travel plans. Read More

New York City was named the most congested city in the U.S. in 2022 by the Annual TomTom Traffic Index, as reported by News 4 New York last week. Woo hoo.

The News4 report said it takes an average of 23 minutes and 39 seconds to drive 6 miles in Manhattan and that the worst hour is Thursdays, 4 to 5PM. Luckily for Teddy’s many very busy business travelers, Teddy’s has flat fares for travel between Manhattan, or the airports, and towns like Darien, New Canaan and Greenwich thus avoiding a penalty when having to travel during rush hour.

And please don’t just think of Manhattan when you think of New York City. “NYC” is comprised of five Borough. In addition to Manhattan, New York City includes the Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Queens. Queens is where two major NYC airports, LaGuardia (LGA) and John F Kennedy (JFK) are located; a major draw for the millions of residents of southern Connecticut’s Fairfield County and of Westchester County, NY.

Greater New York has two other busy, centrally located airports including Newark Liberty (code EWR for some reason). Westchester County Airport (HPN), in White Plains, is busy too.

In 1938, a bill was passed to cap the number of taxi medallions at that year’s current amount of 13,595

• A 2019 report in CityLimits.org has the current number of medallions at roughly the same!
• Uber and Lyft, however, added “80,000” more according to The Verge in 2018. John McCarthy, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transit Authority, told AM NY that “proliferation of Uber and Lyft over the past years has worsened Manhattan’s traffic.”

Counterintuitive to most, but ‘several studies including a 1993 Pricewaterhouse study, found that overall, in many cities deregulated, (as) the supply of taxicabs increased, fares increased, service quality declined and there were more trip refusals, lower vehicle quality …with only minor improvements in availability” as quoted from a Connecticut Legislative Fellow, Kristina Sadlak in a 2004 report to the Connecticut General Assembly.

Stories abound about taxi drivers, both traditional and of Uber, etc., of drivers now having to sleep in their cars most nights to make ends meet.

“Airports were planned for taxi lines, not this other large vehicle transportation mode,” said Tanvi Gandham, a management consultant in a New York Times article.

Congestion fees are already paid, on private car service, for trips to or from Midtown Manhattan, for people traveling from Greater White Plains or anywhere within New York State. Interstate private car service continues to be exempt, so far, saving $2.35 for passengers from Stamford, Greenwich and on through Westport, Wilton, Ridgefield, etc..

The other U.S. cities on top of the Tomtom report are Washington, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago and Baltimore.

In New York, like in many cities, Uber and Lyft used armies of people with bags of cell phones to go straight to the people to buy a nice car (or rent, often by the week or shift) and become a taxi driver for them. THEN, when called upon by the City of New York and lawmakers in Hartford, Boston, New Haven and more, plead for mercy on behalf of all those people that invested in cars in regard exempting them from having to apply for taxi permits or get the physical fitness card or fingerprinted background checks required of most more traditional taxi drivers.

Last week a certain money manager from New Canaan became positively apoplectic when we could not meet his chauffeured car service need on short notice.

We can’t blame him. He and his team have counted on flawless service and never a coverage issue from Teddy’s for decades. But we called several other affiliated limo companies to meet his Sunday night request for a Monday morning car. ..and nobody had an available driver. Our drivers all had assignments already – even me, the company president had a pre-dawn trip to cover.

Teddy’s has always understood a simple ‘yes we can’ is often what our clients covet most from us. “Can I get a 5AM car Tuesday for my boss from Westport to LaGuardia?” Of course – with no pre-dawn surcharge! Midtown, New York to Greenwich tomorrow night? Certainly.

Lately, though, as you have read in so many headlines, the service and travel industries are having once-in-a-lifetime difficulties in finding help to fuel the rapid rebirth of post-pandemic business travel. So many chauffeurs had to leave the industry while it was effectively closed and we are battling to replace that headcount with other world-class professional drivers – no easy task.

Meanwhile, Teddy’s is hearing from so many new people who need professional private car service. So many have moved up to Connecticut during the pandemic. Just today, we booked a first-time ride from a woman whose family just moved to Darien from Brooklyn. We are also hearing from numerous people whose pre-pandemic car service is out of business. At the same time, our frequent business fliers are returning to work at a brisk clip.

We’ve got you. We have your back. But ‘yes’ costs a little more for a while as we rely on independent affiliates and partner providers to help meet your business travel needs. So we’ve increased our surcharge to help us attract and retain the professional chauffeur staff you have come to rely on. We hope you understand.