mug . On board , the seatbacks were stocked with copies of the January 31 , 2000 , issue of New York magazine , which carried a cover story about JetBlue . |
||||||
Pushback was almost right on schedule . However , we were forced to take the ‘ circle tour ’ around JFK to runway 13L and wait more than 20 minutes before takeoff to avoid conflicting with a solid line of arrivals inbound for the 04 runways . After takeoff , we were in the clouds almost immediately but broke through quickly enough to see the sun rise behind us at cruising altitude . |
||||||
|
2
2 3 Passengers on jetBlue ’ s first flight were given mugs and baseball hats commemorating the flights . // AUTHOR ’ S COLLECTION .
|
FEBRUARY 11 , 2025 , marks JetBlue ’ s 25th anniversary . I was there when it all began . On February 11 , 2000 , JetBlue invited me to represent Airways on its first four flights : from New York Kennedy Airport ( JFK ) to Buffalo and back , then from JFK to Fort Lauderdale ( FLL ) and back .
The day before those first flights , I flew a Continental Boeing 737 from my hometown of Detroit to Newark . Then , I took a van to JFK and another to my hotel . On the van between Newark and JFK , the radio played the then-popular Blue by Italian rock group Eiffel 65 . Hearing the band sing the word ‘ Blue ’ over and over again built my enthusiasm for the next day ’ s flights .
Originally , JetBlue ’ s first flight was to be a mid-morning trip from New York to Fort Lauderdale . However , at the last minute , the airline added earlier flights from New York to Buffalo and back — to show gratitude to US Senator Chuck Schumer ,
|
Democrat , of New York , who had helped JetBlue obtain slots at JFK and who badly wanted low-fare air service for his constituents in upstate New York . Taking the earlier flights required me to wake up at 03:30 to catch an 04:00 shuttle from my hotel to the airport .
I expected to find JetBlue ’ s terminal — the I . M . Pei-designed former National and TWA Terminal 6 , which JetBlue shared with United — deserted . However , even at 04:20 , employees were hard at work , inflating decorative balloons . When I checked in , an employee of the company that developed JetBlue ’ s computer system used my Passenger Name Record ( PNR ) to train a JetBlue agent in the workings of the system .
As we entered the jet bridge for the first flight to Buffalo , we were handed a bag with a blue baseball cap embroidered with “ JetBlue Inaugural Flight 2000 ” and a commemorative
|
Once the aircraft had levelled off , JetBlue ’ s President , Dave Barger , and its Chairman , David Neeleman , made some brief remarks about how much this first flight meant to them . Originally , JetBlue had planned to be the first airline in the world to offer in-seat TVs , but the FAA had not certified JetBlue to offer in-seat entertainment in time ; so , shortly before the flight , JetBlue had been forced to temporarily remove the PTVequipped seats and replace them with then-traditional seats without screens . The airline ’ s leaders discussed this thenrevolutionary amenity , which would provide 24 channels of live television courtesy of DirecTV , and apologized for it not being available on those first flights .
After only 30 minutes or so , we began our descent through the clouds into Buffalo , breaking out of them four or five miles from the airport . Not surprisingly , it was snowing lightly in Buffalo , and there were big piles of snow in many of the parking lots we overflew . We landed at Buffalo Airport ( BUF ) on runway 5 . A Shuttle
|