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Small airline hopes to make a splash with flights from Logan to the East River
By adamg on Tue, 05/09/2017 - 11:21pm
Tailwind, which operates a fleet of Cessna turboprop planes that can land on water or land, says it will start service between Logan and a seaport dock at East 23 Street in Manhattan on June 5.
Tailwind is charging $999 for round-trip flights, which will leave the East River for Boston once a day on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and return from Logan on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Included at no additional cost are free water, soda and beer. Each plane can carry eight passengers.
The company says a flight will take an hour and 15 minutes, slightly longer than traditional jet trips to LaGuardia, but without all the annoying traffic problems.
The company adds it hopes to eventually start and end flights right in Boston Harbor. Last year, somebody tested out a seaplane in the harbor.
H/t RoadTrip New England.
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Comments
That's cool, unless there's weather, or dark
"which will leave the East River for Boston once a day on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and return from Logan on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays."
This misses the part where you can't exactly land a seaplane if there is anything less than VFR, so if it's cloudy or foggy, it's back to the Shuttle. And good luck in the winter, when you can only fly between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. (Landing at night is legal, but very dangerous and highly discouraged.)
But, yet, $1000 to get to New York at certain times, if the weather is nice, slightly faster sounds great. Good luck to them!
So in other words,
slightly cheaper and more reliable than Amtrak.
/I kid, I kid
Round trips?
How much faster is it really?
Sure, you don't need to get to/from LaGuardia, and you don't have nearly as much security. But the flight itself is slower.
What is the time difference from midtown Manhattan to Logan for the two options?
Doesn't have to be VFR. Just has to be to high minimums
Boston Logan (KBOS) is class Bravo airspace. It will also be landing on the runway and not the water. I would assume that most of the flight would be IFR (not IMC), otherwise the seaplane could call up Boston Tower and no spacing maybe available to accommodate a VFR flight. Which they do occasionally( Stand clear of the class Bravo). Im assuming departing Boston they will ask have to follow some type of VORs and Waypoints to get into both Bravo's and depart both Bravos. I would assume in NY the minimums would have to be at least SVFR. to clear boats and buildings. East river does not have VFR traffic as the Hudson does but is extremely close to the to airports. They would have to get sometime of clearance to depart or get IFR in the air. Although the new sectional has a seaplane base here in Boston they will not be using it. I honestly can not see a commercial plane no matter how small doing each an every flight VFR, or VFR flight following.
Pricey, but attractive
For people with money who have flexible schedules, this looks like a great alternative to the mess that the big airlines have made. For one thing: "Passengers only need to arrive at 23rd Street and the private terminals at Nantucket or Logan Airport 20 MINUTES prior to take-off." So it's not just the traffic you'd be avoiding, you'd also miss some of that "get there 2 hours early so you can be treated like a criminal" fun. Besides, small turboprops are a fun ride, and a water landing would be a new experience. If I had 1K to spare and wanted to go to NYC, I would definitely consider this.
2 hours early
for domestic flights this is, in my experience, comically overkill for years now. i don't even bother with an hour anymore.
i guess your experiences may vary but i fly a lot and haven't had a single complication due to when i arrive. NOW, on the other hand, i've missed all sorts of flights because of other shenanigans outside of my control entirely.
for domestic flights i see this whole ~2 hour~ nonsense as a symptom of stress that infrequent flyers feel more than any realistic need to arrive so early
+1
I laugh at the people who get there 120 minutes before their flight. An hour is plenty, 45 minutes is doable without checked luggage and with Pre-Check, and 30 is possible. (Especially if you know it to be a time with minimal traffic and/or security lines. This is rarely the case at Logan except for late in the evening but for some hubs, it's easy in the evening. Now if only someone made and the effed up the code for a website where you could report TSA checkpoint times.
30? Ha!
I regularly arrive at Logan 30 minutes before boarding, often 15-20 minutes. Haven't missed a flight yet!
I think he was referring to
I think he was referring to time before scheduled flight departure, not boarding, in the above comments. Meaning that arriving at the airport at the start of boarding is doable if you know what you're doing
Yup. The shuttle flights are
Yup. The shuttle flights are so much more laid back than anything else. Actually, if you get there early, they'll event let you board the earlier flight (if seats are available after standbys) for no extra charge. They're usually one per hour, but some 30 min increments in the early morning. From my experience, this only goes for Bos/LGA/DC flights.
NYC shuttles
I hadn't flown the BOS -> LGA shuttle in a while, but after having done so last weekend, I can see why this would be enticing. The shuttle used to be so much easier...pull up to Boston and go through security and the gates were right there, and you'd land at the Marine Terminal in NYC and be in a cab in 3mins. Now you won't even be halfway out of the terminal in 3mins.
Why did they move the Boston
Why did they move the Boston flights out of the Marine Air Terminal, but keep the DC flights there? As long as they're maintaining a presence, the Marine Air Terminal is way better for passengers. You get through quicker, and most people aren't transferring to other Delta flights which leave from the main terminal.
No idea
I was surprised/bummed when I landed there last weekend and had to walk all the way through the terminal to get to the cab line. Used to be so easy, I'd show up at say 12:50 for a 2pm flight and sprint through security and have a good shot of getting on the 1pm flight.
yeah
30 minutes is probably my best time too. this was during non-peak hours living in newton so a straight shot right in
edit: i should say thats relevant because i only woke up 45 minutes before my flight was even supposed to board. and yeah, i had little interest in getting to where i was going.
Depends on what you want to do
I personally enjoy grabbing an expense account snack and a beer before boarding a multi-hour flight and while tucked into a corner with my laptop, editing stuff and returning e-mails. That amount of time is a very productive amount of time for me.
I still follow my dad's advice and get there 14 hours early
http://www.theonion.com/article/dad-suggests-arriving-at-airport-14-hour...
The shuttles used to let you
The shuttles used to let you show up just a few minutes before departure. Since there were no reservations, it didn't matter that much if you missed a flight -- you'd be first in line for the next one.
I think they don't work that way any more. Does anyone know?
Hey, I know a pilot if they
Hey, I know a pilot if they're looking for someone with experience landing in NYC rivers.
Hopefully this takes off.
Hopefully this takes off.
The more Manhattanites we can quickly bring into Boston the better. They can speed up the process of making Boston a world class city.
I'm still hoping for high
I'm still hoping for high speed rail service, South Station to Grand Central at some point in time this century. In the meantime, Delta Shuttle it is.
Yikes
Was really excited by the headline (my place is a 15 minute walk to the E23rd skyport), but I seriously doubt this will be viable at that price. I've been doing the NYC <-> Boston think for 10 years now, about once every 1.5 to 2 months. Just last week, I purchased an AA shuttle ticket for $58 each way, down from the usual $75. A lot of people give LGA crap, but if I can get on an early morning flight (before 7am), I can get from my apartment door in lower Manhattan to the gate in 35 minutes. This is of course when I'm traveling for work... wouldn't pay for a cab otherwise (~$35).
Public transit and LGA do not mix will. In those situations (where work isn't paying), I just use Amtrak with saver fares at $48. If I'm really in a pinch, I'll take Bolt/Megabus. In short, there are so many cheap options to get between Boston and NYC that you need to be extremely mad, or suddenly have an emergency that requires you to get to Boston ASAP (while near the E23rd skyport) to fork over $1K.
Maybe I've been very lucky, but in my at least 100 trips between NYC and Boston, I've only had an issue or delay about 10% of the time. The least reliable method for me has always been Bolt Bus. The most reliable, ironically, was Fung Wah. I've been lucky with Amtrak, with only 1 clusterf**k ride out of the 50+ times I've used it, but it's looking dodgy this summer with the track work at Penn. Maybe I'm a bit crazy, but the LGA<->BOS shuttle is probably my preferred method. Whatever, I'm rambling now. Maybe this thing will work out -- the Sty-Town bros can have their $1K plane.
The problem is most of the
The problem is most of the Boston-NYC options are not flexible. The only one where you can still walk up and reliably get a seat at a good price is the Lucky Star Bus.