The first JetBlue flight to Daytona Beach International Airport in seven years arrived on Thursday, landing from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. The passengers who arrived were greeted by a welcome party of local stakeholders and airport executives upon exiting the plane.
Landing just a few minutes behind its 9:13 am arrival time, the flight was given a ceremonial water salute on the tarmac. Those exiting the plane were part of a major event for Volusia County whether they intended to be or not.
“You can see that everybody is so excited,” said Joanne Magley, the Daytona Beach International Airport Director of Marketing & Customer Experience. “JetBlue is a very popular airline, everybody loves JetBlue. JetBlue served the area years ago and now they’re back. And it’s kind of better than ever, because now they’re not just back with New York service daily, they also have a daily service to Boston.”
Beginning with Thursday’s flight, JetBlue will be running daily flights to and from New York City and Boston out of Daytona Beach. The routes are nonstop, visiting JFK Airport in New York and Boston Logan International Airport in Massachusetts. These two markers are each along the top five busiest that Daytona Beach serves.
“I think it’s gonna bring a lot more passengers, not just from Volusia County but from the region,” said Volusia County Council Chair Jeff Brower. “I think it’s just another set of tremendous opportunities for our residents. The airport staff has just done an unbelievable job. We have every gate now with an airline in it. We haven’t had that for many years. I couldn’t be happier seeing the amount of people here.”
As it so happened, there was one celebrity passenger on the historic JetBlue flight. Jake Storiale, a partner and podcast host with the popular sports media company Jomboy Media. Storiale said he flew from New York City to visit his mother, a New Smyrna Beach resident. “I did not expect [the fanfare], I had no idea,” Storiale said with a laugh when he took in the media frenzy after leaving the plane. “I was expecting to just have a normal, sleepy 7:00 am flight out of JFK and everyone’s been on cloud nine and having a blast!”
I hope things work out better this time around and JetBlue expands to more airports around the country. Unfortunately for me I would have like it to go directly the Newark NJ so I can fly to visit some friends and family that still live up there. I hate JFK airport and the drive from NY to NJ. So I’ll just drive the 13 hours it takes to get there.
Looks like I will be on these flights regularly as my company has a large presence in the northern New Jersey area. Unfortunately it took me almost three hours to get to Morristown after getting off the flight this week, longer than the flight up.