Monday, August 3, 2015

Tailwind Adds NYC Seaplane Shuttle Service between Bedford and East 23rd Street in Manhattan

The Cessna 208 Caravan 675 is equipped to land on water or land and has space for 9 passengers

Last month, Tailwind launched a non-stop seaplane service between Hanscom Field in Bedford to New York City via the Skyport seaplane terminal on the East River at 23rd Street. Tailwind operates under an FAA Part 135 “On Demand” Air Carrier Certificate enabling it to conduct on-demand air charter and air taxi operations for hire. Rather than use the regular civil passenger terminal at Hanscom, Tailwind operates out of Rectrix which is a new Fixed Based Operator (FBO) which opened in Bedford in 2014. The three FBO's in Bedford primarily service corporate jets along with General Aviation.


Rectrix provides a much more relaxing environment to wait for your flight than your typical passenger terminal.

The seaplane service is designed for people who need to travel from the Bedford Area to NYC just for the day. The idea being that it saves a lot of time by avoiding having to travel from Bedford to Logan Airport and then from LaGuardia Airport to Manhattan and back. Tailwind flies on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday leaving Bedford at 7:30 am and arriving in Manhattan at 8:45 am. The return flight leaves the Manhattan East River at 4:45 pm and arrives in Bedford at 6 pm. According to Tailwind, you need to arrive 20 minutes before the scheduled departure and there is no TSA screening at the Seaport in Manhattan. To get to Manhattan by 9 am via Logan, you would have to leave the Bedford area around 5:30 am to catch a 7 am flight and then leave Manhattan by 2:30 pm to catch a 4 pm flight to get back by 6 pm. I would estimate you would save over 4 hours and avoid paying for taxis to and from the airports. Rectrix also offers free parking for Tailwind customers.

The airplane hanger space at Rectrix comprises 60K square feet and is currently 100% occupied. In addition to the Hanger space, the building has over 20K square feet of additional space which is split among the FBO lobby, office space for Rectrix Corporate Headquarters and office space it leases out to it's corporate clients.

The Rectrix FBO lobby includes plenty of space for clients and pilots to relax between flights. The FBO also has conference and meeting rooms, a lounge for pilots and a weather and flight-planning center.

This Tailwind airplane was built in 1999 and is powered by a 675 Horsepower  Pratt & Whitney Turbo-prop. The flight to Manhattan takes about an hour and 15 minutes.
There are now three Fixed Based Operators in Bedford which includes the recent addition of Rectrix, Jet Aviation, which just kicked off a major expansion of it's facilities and Signature Flight Support


Rectrix is adding a restaurant which will be open for Breakfast and Lunch and should also be open to the public.
Comments:
1. It will be interesting to see if business travelers take advantage of the Tailwind Service. Over the past decades there have been several attempts to schedule flights between Bedford and the NYC area. Tailwind seems to be taking a unique approach by flying directly in to Manhattan.

2. It seems to be a smart idea to add a restaurant at Hanscom Field. This provides a nice amenity for the airport and may also attract workers from the nearby office parks off Virginia road in Concord as there are presently no other restaurants nearby.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd be willing to try both of these options.

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