JetBlue Inaugural to Hyannis/Barnstable Municipal Airport

[Carfield]

JetBlue Inaugural Flight to Hyannis/Barnstable Airport



I hope you are not sick of all my reports on JetBlue but I promise this will be the last one for a while.
It has always been a tradition of mine to attend the Annual Pride March in NYC, and when I heard that JetBlue would launch its 86th Blue City – Hyannis Barnstable Airport at Cape Cod on June 26th, I was like, “Sure I could do it” and learning my previous experiences with flights to Massachusetts, I decided to do a same day roundtrip ticket. Thankfully I was not the only one, who decided to take a day off to fly this inaugural flight, and I was grateful to meet two fellow talkers during this trip too. Hopefully they will say something about this flight too.

Here is the flight information:
June 26, 2014; Thursday
B6 824 JFK-HYA Lv1159 Arr1305 Embraer EMB-190AR N375JB “Blue State of Mind” Barcode Livery
B6 823 HYA-JFK Lv1505 Arr1610

Link to album:
http://s1213.photobucket.com/user/Ca...ral%2006262014

JetBlue is an expert on these inaugural flights by now, and you can always count on some nice ceremonies at both ends and today is no exception. Jeffrey Goodell, Vice President of Government and Airport Affairs, was the JetBlue’s official that traveled on the inaugural service to Hyannis/Barnstable Municipal Airport, and did not return to JFK as I was sure that he was on a JetBlue promotional tour. The flight was almost all full on the inaugural service to Hyannis but the return was about 40 to 50%, which was typical on most inaugural flights. However, Hyannis has no regional jet service and has a relatively higher income community, and this can be potentially successful flight.

Gate 16 was our gate today





Nice continental breakfast buffet to start the day!


Our aircraft today was N375JB, named “Blue State of Mind” with the barcode livery. This plane was selected because 2014 was the 375th anniversary of the town, Barnstable, in which the airport was based on. The aircraft arrived from Buffalo this morning.

[Carfield]

Ribbon Cutting time



New destination poster on display


Boarding began at 11:30am and from JFK to HYA, I had both 13A and 13B to myself! Given its short duration of time, Even More Space seats were not filled on both directions.


We took off from R/W31L at 12:08pm for the forty-one minutes flight to Hyannis. We climbed all the way to 19,000ft, before descending to 17,000feet a few minutes later.




Unfortunately there were still problems with JetBlue’s headset jacks on its Embraer fleet. My jack at 13A did not work but thankfully the flight was short, and I did not need audio to watch the World Cup match between the USA and Germany.


In terms of in-flight service, JetBlue has introduced a new version of the express beverage service due to these really short flights to these MA cities. Only bottled waters were offered, but you still had two choices of snacks – from JFK to HYA, Terra Blue Chips or Skeeter Nut-Free Chocolate Chip cookies would be offered.


Approaching Hyannis




We landed on R/W15 at 12:49pm and we parked at gate 3 three minutes later.

Of course water salute welcomed us to Hyannis.

[Carfield]

Seat 13C/D


Cabin shot


Cockpit shot


Nice shot of the plane at Hyannis






Baggage Claim


Gift bag on arrival


Barnstable Municipal Airport

[Carfield]

Based on previous JetBlue experiences on inaugural flights to this part of the country, JetBlue actually padded a long layover at Hyannis for the inaugural return service. However, passengers were not allowed into the gate so I just walked to a nearby Wendy’s for a quick lunch. Of course there was no TSA Pre service here and only one scanner here. But given that only our flight requires TSA, I don’t foresee issues in the future.

There was another celebration at Gate 3, and cupcakes, sandwiches and crudités were offered along with bottled waters and sodas.





More gift bags for departing passengers


Cape Code Chambers of Commerce had some speeches, and there was another ribbon cutting ceremony


Boarding began 2:38pm and JetBlue staffs were there to assist with the airport operations.




I was the first one to board the plane, and actually got some moments to take some empty cabin shots.

[Carfield]

Gate 3


Even More Space seat – 12AB



12CD


Farewell from Gate 3


The boarding process was smooth and on time, but we were given a wheel-up time of 3:12pm. So we just sat by R/W6 and the flying time on the return flight was forty-one minutes and our cruising attitude was 22,000feet.




Same bottled water service and the snack was a choice of pretzels or Popcorner chips!


Inaugural gift bag – similar to outbound flight – but there were one more beach towel from a Cape Cod resort, and the light bulbs sort of perplexed me, but I guess it was Cape Cod related! I still think JetBlue should pass out first flight certificates!

[Carfield]

Descending into JFK




We landed on R/W31R at 3:53pm and parked at gate 9 at 3:57pm.


In conclusion, it was a great flight and thanks to Tiffany and Ricky for a wonderful service. These NYC-MA flights were short, and JetBlue offers a pretty good product. I think Hyannis will be a successful seasonal flight. Thanks for reading! I have one more big report coming and hopefully the first day of a new airline will go well!

Carfield

[yflyer]

Great TR, Carfield! Keep the inaugural TR's coming!

Never tried the Embraer Regional Jets, but looks like a good ride for a short flight.

Cockpit shot

I have always been amused by the motorcycle handlebars that Embraer use in the cockpit...

[Kyo]

Thanks, I enjoyed this simple flight TR