AIRWAYS SPECIAL Jetblue ’ s First Day
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America Dash 8 and an AirTran DC-9 were waiting to take off once we had landed ; we pulled in next to a United 727-200 .
After landing , we were met by Schumer and New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani , who escorted David Neeleman to a press conference in the foyer of the terminal . Also present were New York Governor George Pataki and many other politicians . Instead of listening to the speeches , I grabbed two almond paste croissants from the buffet that Buffalo Airport had provided and explored the terminal for a while . In 2000 , airlines still issued ticket folders , and I picked up a Shuttle America one for my collection while walking around .
After the speeches had ended , we returned to the gate for the flight back to JFK . Unfortunately , fog had rolled in at JFK after we had left and we were therefore held at the gate for more than an hour before we could finally take off .
4 The January 31 , 2000 issue of New York magazine had a cover story about jetBlue . // AUTHOR ’ S COLLECTION
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We took off to the northeast , and quickly turned southeast for JFK . Once we had broken through the clouds , Neeleman gave another speech to the passengers , which now included Senator Schumer and Mayor Giuliani . Giuliani was seated in seat 1F , on the far right side of the aircraft , and Schumer was in 3A , on the far left side of the aircraft . I wondered whether their seating arrangement was meant to reflect their positions on the political spectrum . My seatmate was a cameraman for the ABC television series 20-20 who was filming a report about Neeleman and his battle with attention deficit disorder . Once again , we were only in the air about 30 minutes before we began our descent into JFK .
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