The View Aboard Tailwind Air’s First Flight of the Season Between New York and Boston

New York-based Tailwind Air began it’s seasonal New York Skyport to Boston Harbor service on March 25. The approximately one hour 30 minute flight is served by an amphibious Cessna 208B EX that seats eight passengers in addition to the crew of two pilots.

Tailwind Air’s primary seaplane base is the New York Skyport, which is situated near Manhattan’s lower east side on the East River between the Williamsburg Bridge and the Queens Midtown Tunnel.

The service departs the Skyport Marina and flies into a floating dock in the middle the Boston Main Channel between the Ted Williams and Lieutenant William E Callaghan Tunnels, adjacent to Logan International Airport. Passengers are met by the Boston Water Taxi Service, which takes them to the Fan Pier Park Marina.

The Boston water taxi service provided to passengers upon landing. (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Katie Bailey)

Tailwind Air invited AirlineGeeks to the season’s inaugural flight. We arrived at the Skyport Marina after taking the subway and a short walk. There is a parking garage attached to the Skyport Marina building, and a bus service is also available. It was an easy check-in that took about a minute.

The newer Amphibious Caravan arrived on time to pick us up on the dock. Avgeeks will rejoice in the giant G1000 screens and the ease of cockpit viewing the aircraft offers. The other feature of interest for the aviation crowd — sometimes you fly directly over LaGuardia Airport and when landing in Boston you come in right next to Logan Airport, which is great for spotting.

The cockpit view aboard our Tailwind Air flight. (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Katie Bailey)

The flight to Boston took about an hour and ten minutes due to a 25 knot tailwind. Landing in Boston Harbor, you land and taxi to a remote dock. The water taxi arrived almost at the same time we deplaned. It is only about a three to five minute ride from plane to Fan Pier.

The reverse flight was equally efficient, although that tailwind turned to a headwind, and the flight took a bit longer. We sat at the front of the plane on the way back making it easy to see that the flight seems to stay between 3,500 and 4,500 feet with extremely gentle ascent and decent rates making it easier on those suffering spring allergies or sinus/ear pain.

Landing in New York aboard a Tailwind Air Cessna 208B. (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Katie Bailey)

The company will fly four daily trips Monday through Friday, with weekend flights coming to the schedule soon. They boast a time saving trip of 40-60% over taking common commercial planes or trains, part of the time savings is their short arrival times, they ask you arrive no later than 20 minutes prior to departure, no need to clear long security lines or long distances to gates. They are currently the only company servicing these routes.

In addition to servicing New York and Boston, they also fly to Bridgeport, Conn. East Hampton Airport, Nantucket Airport and Shelter Island.

Tailwind Air was founded in 2014 flying scheduled and chartered flights. It is based at Westchester Airport and Sikorsky Memorial Airport. They have grown to a fleet of 16 jet and prop planes.

The view out the front of our Tailwind Air Cessna 208B. (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Katie Bailey)

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AirlineGeeks.com was founded in February 2013 as a one-person blog in Washington D.C. Since then, we’ve grown to have 25+ active team members scattered across the globe. We are all here for the same reason: we love deep-diving into the fascinating realm of the airline industry.

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