Tailwind Air Service (PGN, Farmingdale) says it may acquire more Cessna (single turboprop) 208 Caravan Amphibians if its bid to begin scheduled passenger operations as a commuter air carrier is successful.
In its application to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) for commuter air carrier authority, Tailwind said it plans to operate six weekly roundtrip flights from New York Skyports Seaplane Base to East Hampton Town, New York, on a scheduled basis. Flight operations would be seasonal and would operate from Memorial Day weekend (late May) to the weekend after Labor Day (early September).
Tailwind Air may also, at some point in the future, operate an up to 3x daily, weekday-only service between New York Skyports Seaplane Base and Boston Harbor, pending local government approval as well as the development of the necessary infrastructure to support such operations, including designated facilities for fueling and passenger handling. As with its proposed East Hampton scheduled service, Tailwind Air said the Boston Harbor service would be seasonal, most likely between April 1 and December 1 of each year.
"Of course, if potential seaplane Boston Harbor scheduled seaplane service becomes feasible during the pendency of this application, Tailwind Air will supplement this application with additional fitness data in support of those operations, which would require Tailwind Air to purchase or lease up to two additional seaplane aircraft," it said.
At present, Tailwind is an FAA-certified Part 135 carrier offering commercial flights, predominantly on a seasonal basis, between New York Skyports Seaplane Base, located in Manhattan, to destinations on Long Island in New York, including East Hampton, Montauk, Shelter Island, and Sag Harbor. It plies the routes using an in-house nine-passenger Cessna Caravan Amphibian. It also operates an eight-passenger seat Dassault Falcon DA50 it exclusively leases. In addition to these two aircraft, Tailwind Air also operates certain aircraft managed by its sister company, Jetas, LLC which include an Embraer EMB-505 and two Socata TBM 700s.
