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the airport . As we turned to line up with the runway , I got a very nice view of the Everglades , with I-75 stretching west toward the Gulf Coast . The landing was on Runway 10L .
As we taxied toward the gate , we were greeted by the airport ’ s fire department . They had positioned their trucks on both sides of the route we would take and , as we taxied between the trucks , we received a water cannon salute from both sides .
We disembarked to the greetings of elected officials from Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood . We had to endure one final round of speeches before being able to head for a late lunch .
The original plan called for us to be taken to lunch at the East City Grill , a very nice restaurant on the Atlantic Coast . Unfortunately , the fog delays at JFK meant that we had to eat at the terminal . I was able to enjoy Fort Lauderdale ’ s sun and 75 ° F ( 24 ° C ) heat for only about three minutes as we walked from our terminal to the airport restaurant and back .
The day ’ s final flight , from Fort Lauderdale to JFK , was the most relaxed . After takeoff , we
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flew out to sea , and the sky was clear enough for me to see the Bahamas to the east . By the time we reached JFK , it was crystal clear ; as we were sequenced for landing at JFK , New York City ’ s lights twinkled on the horizon . |
The next day , February 12 , 2000 , I visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island before flying another Continental 737 back to my home near Detroit .
As an Airways correspondent since its inception , I have been on other airlines ’ inaugural flights , but JetBlue ’ s seemed much more organized . It was clear that the airline had planned its launch meticulously . Afterward , I felt that JetBlue — unlike other airlines I had flown , which had then failed within a few years — was run well enough to last for many years to come .
I enjoyed my passages through JFK ’ s Terminal 6 . Although not as famous as its next-door neighbor , the Eero Saarinen designed Terminal 5 , I thought that its airy , spacious ticketing wing — which had served as a psychological transition for generations of passengers flying from cold and congested New York City to warm and beachy Florida on
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7 The day after jetBlue ’ s inaugural flights , the author took this picture of lower Manhattan at sunset from Ellis Island . Just 19 months later , the World Trade Center would be destroyed in the 9 / 11 terrorist attacks . // AUTHOR |
Finally , although JetBlue ’ s success did not surprise me , I could have never imagined in my worst nightmares that , just 19 months after my flights and my visit to Ellis Island , the twin towers of the World Trade Center , which I had seen on several occasions during my trip , would be destroyed . The world in which JetBlue made its first flights truly was much different from and much more innocent than today ’ s .
The primary source for this article were detailed notes I took in February 2000 . I also drew upon Barbara S . Peterson ’ s outstanding book Blue Streak : Inside JetBlue , the Upstart That Rocked an Industry . Published in 2004 , Blue Streak describes the legal , financial , and operational challenges JetBlue had to overcome before the first flight took off and during its first few years of operation . I highly recommend Blue Streak to anyone wanting to learn more about JetBlue . I also recommend Peterson ’ s earlier book , Rapid Descent : Deregulation and the Shakeout in the Airlines , which was published in 1994 and can also be purchased on Amazon . Rapid Descent is the best book written about airline deregulation in the US and on why deregulation did not accomplish what its promoters hoped it would .
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