It is not often that jetBlue flies the A320 from New York to Syracuse. It is usually something that happens randomly. This is the flight I used to take the most when I was younger. Originally jetBlue did SYR-JFK on the A320. Then eventually it was the E190. I like when I get the opportunity to fly the A320 on this route. It reminds me of when I was really young, and starting to become interested in aviation. The last time I flew an A320 SYR-JFK was March 13, 2020. I had to go to New York for the day. I flew an A320 and a Delta CRJ-200. It was right when Covid was becoming a big thing. My Uber driver to the airport that day was saying he was driving a lot of kids to the airport, because a lot of the colleges had just suspended their classes. Two days before I took that flight, international flights to the United States were suspended. I remember it was a weird atmosphere in the airport that day, as no one knew what to expect or what was coming. It was the last flight I took where masks weren’t required on planes and a lot of people weren’t wearing them yet. Right after that flight, flying tanked for over a year. This time I was doing the same flights, two and a half years later. It is good to see that things are in a much better place. Flights are consistently full, and the industry is in a lot better position. Anyway, I had done a daytrip to Portland, OR the night before. I had landed at JFK at 8:30am. I went home for a few hours and took a nap. Then about 5 hours later, I was back at JFK for these two flights. I was doing JFK-SYR on an Endeavor CRJ-900. Then a few hours later flying SYR-JFK on the jetBlue A320



Delta Connection “Endeavor” 4976
New York, NY (JFK) – Syracuse, NY (SYR)
Bombardier CRJ-900
N304PQ
Seat 9D
Scheduled Departure Time – 4:17pm
Actual Departure Time- 5:01pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 5:51pm
Actual Arrival Time- 5:47pm
46 minutes





N304PQ at gate B44, after arriving from Raleigh



Boarding started at 3:40pm, and about 20 minutes later everyone was on board and ready to go. But, the door wasn’t closed until 4:15. The captain announced that there was traffic blocking us, and we didn’t start pushing until 4:40pm. While we were waiting the very chatty woman next to me kept talking to me, and talking and talking. The flight attendant must have forgotten to brief the exit rows, because she did once we were pushing after the safety demo was done



9D, next to N930XJ that was departing right around the time we were to Bangor



PH-BKH KLM 641 taxiing to a gate, after a flight from Amsterdam



Despite having to sit for a while waiting to pushback, once we actually started moving it was a quick taxi and we were at 4L in no time. As we were taxiing it started to rain, and the visibility dropped a little bit



We taxied onto 4L and took off



Once we were in the air, we were given the standard 100 heading off of 4L and were handed off to NY Departure



We checked in with the Departure controller climbing out of 2,500ft for 5,000ft. We were cleared to 17,000 and given a left turn back to a 050 heading



There were a few bumps in the clouds, but we quickly climbed through it was a nice day on top



We were then given a 320 heading, and handed off to NY Departure on 118.17



We climbed up to flight level 200 where we only stayed for a few minutes. On Delta flights from New York to Syracuse, the flight attendants don’t do any service because the flight is so quick



Cruising





20 minutes before landing we started the descent into Syracuse



We checked in with Syracuse Approach descending out of 15,000 for 11,000ft with information Delta. We were given a 15 degree left turn, and told to expect to a lower altitude in 6 miles



“Endeavor 4976 Descend and maintain 4,000”



We were following another Endeavor CRJ-900 to the field. Approach pointed him out at our 12 O’clock position at 4,500ft. They didn’t have him in sight, so they gave us a left turn to a 280 heading for spacing. We were then given a 070 heading to join the localizer, and cleared for the visual approach to Runway 10







It was a quick taxi to gate 23, with N899UA pushed back for a flight to Chicago



Pulling into the gate on the airport webcam



N304PQ was flying right back down to JFK



The airport was pretty dead. There were only a few flights departing the rest of the night



N304PQ taking off back to JFK









The last time I flew out of SYR, they wouldn’t let me use Pre Check if I just showed them my badge. I had Pre Check on my boarding pass, so I stopped at the counter to have them print it out for me. They were nice, and were able to give me my seat right then



jetBlue 397
Syracuse, NY (SYR) - New York, NY (JFK)
Airbus A320
N657JB
Seat 5A
Scheduled Departure Time – 9:42pm
Actual Departure Time- 9:39pm
Scheduled Arrival Time – 10:50pm
Actual Arrival Time- 10:32pm
53 minutes





It was a pretty empty flight





The plane landed at 8:40pm, and was at the gate pretty much right after







The inbound flight seemed pretty full. Once everyone had deplaned, boarding started pretty much right away and it didn’t take long to get the few passengers on the flight



5A



The door was closed at 9:25pm, 17 minutes early. We were pushing back a few minutes later



On the airport webcam



Taxiing to runway 28, next to N613NN that had arrived earlier in the afternoon from DCA. I’ve flown N613NN from SYR-CLT



Obviously, we were the only plane departing. It was a quick taxi, and the pilots called the tower that we were ready. With that, we were cleared for takeoff



It was a really quick takeoff roll, and after a few seconds we were in the air





We were given a left turn heading 150, up to 10,000ft and direct to the POMPY intersection







We went up to FL210 for the short flight down to JFK



Unlike on Delta flights, the flight attendants did a quick service and shortly after this we were descending



Descending



They were still using 4L/R at JFK. So just like 14 hours earlier, we flew the same arrival and approach





The pilots checked in on the ILS 4R, and let tower know that we would be entering the ramp at taxiway Golf





It was another smooth touchdown on 4R



We waited for five heavies to depart 4L, and two planes to land before we were cleared to cross. We entered the ramp at Foxtrot and taxied around to gate 1. There was a plane that had just pushed off of our gate, so we had to wait for a few minutes until we could get to the gate. We taxied past N806JB, the plane that I had flown on the night before from PDX-JFK







N657JB spent the night at gate 1, before leaving early the next morning to Kingston, Jamaica



It had been two fun day trips. I got to take flights that I used to take a lot and one of my favorite flights from when I was younger to PDX. But it had been a long day. I went home and had a good night sleep, after a long day of flying