News: Flyglobespan switch New York flights to JFK Airport
Flights > News > # 1005 (05/10/2006)
Flyglobespan’s flights from Liverpool to New York will operate to JFK rather than Newark as originally intended.
Liverpool’s first transatlantic scheduled service is due to take off May 25. Flyglobespan originally had provisional slots to operate to and from New York's Newark airport. However the recent availability of slots at JFK, which is more convenient for getting into Manhattan, enabled the airline to switch operations.
Flyglobespan chairman, Tom Dalrymple, said: “We are naturally delighted with this latest development. This was too good an opportunity to miss. JFK is widely recognised as the airport of choice for those visiting New York and we believe this will be particularly beneficial for those travelling on business.”
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I've never really understood what the big deal is about using JFK airport instead of Newark. If you are trying to get to downtown Manhattan by public transport, which I would assume most people are, then there really isn't much difference between them. JFK might offer cheaper taxi transfers to places in New York City itself (Newark is across the Hudson River in New Jersey - you will have to pay a toll fee of $10 to go through the Lincoln Tunnel on top of the cab fare if you are heading into Manhattan), but for anyone trying to get to other parts of the Atlantic seaboard, then Newark offers much easier access to the interstate freeway network, as well is to Amtrak train services to cities such as Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington DC.
The tone of Flyglobespan's press release suggests that this is far more about prestige than it is about giving Flyglobespan's customers easier access to downtown Manhattan. Does anyone really care about flying "from JLA to JFK" - the idea sounds nice, but in my opinion JFK is a sprawling mess compared to Newark. You are also far more likely to get better views of the breathtaking Manhattan skyline by flying through Newark.
Maybe there is a long-term strategic intention which revolves around a potential tie-up with a US-based low-cost airline. This is something that Globespan boss Tom Dalrymple mentioned when launching the airline's ambitious proposals for daily Glasgow to Boston flights. One airline with a significant presence at both Boston Logan airport and New York JFK is Jet Blue. The whole arena of co-operation between low-cost airlines hasn't really been explored that much yet, but the USA is far too big a country for most transatlantic routes to be viable without offering onward connection opportunities. We are sure that the Liverpool to New York flights will be popular enough, regardless of which airport they arrive in, but if there is any prospect of a tie-up between Flyglobespan and a JFK based budget airline, then it is understandable that they would want to avoid their passengers having to drag baggage across New York from one airport to the other.
