New York’s Tailwind Air eyes seasonal seaplane commutes

New York-based seaplane air taxi operator, Tailwind Air Service (Farmingdale), has re-applied to the US Department of Transportation for commuter air carrier authority to operate five or more scheduled services per week, starting with seasonal flights from April to November between its New York Skyports SPB base and its base in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Tailwind Air intends to launch the schedules as soon as all necessary governmental approvals are received, only using its sole seaplane, Cessna (single turboprop) 208B N41TE (msn 208B5268). According to its application, it does not plan to add further seaplanes to its fleet during its first year of commuter operations. It intends to continue operating seaplane charters from Florida during periods of the year when the New York-based seaplane schedules would not operate. Tailwind Air’s parent company, TAS, has secured a revolving line of credit for USD525,000 to support Tailwind Air’s scheduled operations as needed. The carrier points out that this would be more than adequate to meet the DOT’s financial fitness test, which requires an amount of USD483,898, representing the sum of three months’ average operating costs for the scheduled seaplane service. According to unaudited financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2020, the company had total assets of USD2.9 million, equalled by total liabilities of USD2.9 million. As an air taxi operator, Tailwind Air currently holds an FAA-issued air carrier certificate and associated operations specifications authorising on-demand/charter operations under Federal Aviation Regulation FAR Part 135 Independent of the commuter air carrier authority sought, it intends to continue operating commercial flights under its Part 298 air taxi authority using aircraft it leases – a Falcon 50 – or professionally manages, which include one Cessna Caravan Amphibian, two Falcon 900s, and three TBM-700s, the application reads. It does not seek commuter air carrier authorisation for operations with non-seaplanes. Four aircraft that Tailwind Air manages are pending addition to its FAR Part 135 operations specifications (one Dassault Falcon 100, one Cessna CJ3, one Beech (twin turboprop) Kingair 250, and one PC-12). Tailwind Air manages additional aircraft, including two Daher TBM 700s, and one Cirrus SR-22, that are not used in air taxi operations, nor will they be used for scheduled flights. As previously reported, Tailwind Air withdrew a previous application for commuter air carrier authorisation in 2019. In May 2020, it was reported to have planned scheduled seaplane services in cooperation with Southern Airways Express (9X, Memphis Int’l). The company was established in 2016 to provide efficient and cost-effective seaplane charter operations from New York to regional leisure destinations throughout the US Northeast. Its primary markets are seasonal summer destinations on Long Island, including East Hampton Airport, Montauk, Shelter Island, and Sag Harbor. In order to provide this service, TAS in 2016 purchased the FAR Part 135 charter company business of fixed base operator, Volo Aviation. The transaction included the re-issuance of Volo’s FAR Part 135 certificate to Tailwind Air, a process that was completed by the FAA on March 24, 2017.