Tailwind Air LLC was an American commuter scheduled air carrier and

charter airline Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flight ...

based in Westchester Airport and

Sikorsky Memorial Airport Igor I. Sikorsky Memorial Airport is a public airport in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, owned by the city of Bridgeport. It is three miles (6 km) southeast of downtown, in the town of Stratford. It was formerly Bridgeport M ...

. Its main

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tech ...

base was

New York Skyports Seaplane Base New York Skyports Inc. Seaplane base is a seaplane base in the East River VFR corridor in New York City, located at the foot of 23rd Street (Manhattan), East 23rd Street between Waterside Plaza and Stuyvesant Cove Park. The seaplane base opened ...

(NYS) and it also owned its own

Boston Harbor Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, located adjacent to Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the Northeastern United States. History 17th century Since its dis ...

seaplane base (MA17), near

Logan International Airport General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport — also known as Boston Logan International Airport — is an international airport located mostly in East Boston and partially in Winthrop, Massachusetts, United States. Covering , it has ...

in Boston. The airline had a sister company named Tailwind Air, LLC, which charters and manages a fleet of land planes.

History

Tailwind operated scheduled and charter seaplane services out of the 23rd Street Seaplane base in Manhattan (NYS). Tailwind serviced Boston Logan Airport, Boston Harbor Seaplane Base, Shelter Island, Bridgeport, and the East Hampton Airport and Nantucket Airport with multiple shuttle flights. Initial competitors on these routes included

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

and

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

's and

American Airlines American Airlines, Inc. is a major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the ...

' hourly shuttle services. Tailwind intended to move its routes to all water airports after regulatory approval. The routes were not serviced by any existing seaplane operator. In-flight service included complimentary snacks and beverages. Tailwind Air ceased scheduled services in early 2024 and is currently charter-only. The airline reported that scheduled operations had not reached profitability, and they failed to get a large enough investment to continue slow growth in ticketing.

Destinations

Tailwind operated flights to the following destinations:

Fleet

Tailwind Air seaplane leaving dock New York Skyport

Tailwind Air seaplane arriving at the New York Skyport

The Tailwind Air fleet consisted of the following aircraft: *3 Cessna 208EX Caravan *1

Dassault Falcon 50 The Dassault Falcon 50 is a French super-midsize, long-range business jet, featuring a trijet layout with an S-duct air intake for the central engine. It has the same fuselage cross-section and similar capacity as the earlier twin-engined Falco ...

*2 Dassault Falcon 900EX *3 SOCATA TBM-700 *3 SOCATA TBM-900 *1 Beechcraft King Air 250 *1

Cessna Citation CJ3 The Cessna CitationJet/CJ/M2 (also known as the Model 525) are a series of light business jets built by Cessna, and are part of the Citation family. Launched in October 1989, the first flight of the Model 525 was on April 29, 1991. Federal Avi ...

*1 Dassault Falcon 100 *1

Pilatus PC-12 The Pilatus PC-12 is a pressurized, single-engined, turboprop aircraft manufactured by Pilatus Aircraft of Stans, Switzerland since 1991. It was designed as a high-performance utility aircraft that incorporates a large aft cargo door in addi ...

Former fleet

*1 ×

Embraer Phenom 300 The Embraer EMB-505 Phenom 300 is a light business jet designed and produced by the Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer. Certified for single-pilot operations, it can carry up to 11 occupants. Work on the Phenom 300 started in response to cu ...

References

External links

* {{Defunct airlines of the United States Defunct airlines of the United States Airlines established in 2014 Airlines disestablished in 2024 Defunct charter airlines of the United States Aviation in New York City Companies based in Manhattan 2014 establishments in New York City American companies established in 2014 Seaplane operators Airlines based in New York (state)