How Does Boston to New York by Seaplane Sound?

Photo via Boston Public Library on Flickr/Creative Commons

Transit between Boston and New York has long been a question that’s drawn a variety solutions. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump once operated an eponymous, luxury air shuttle service out of Logan International Airport. (And like the vast majority of his side-ventures, it’s now defunct.)

If you can avoid traffic—and good luck with that—it’s a five-hour slog by car. By Amtrak, the trip from Back Bay to Penn Station is closer to four-and-a-half. By plane, the hour you’ll spend airborne is bookended by all the rigamarole of security theater. And while General Electric awaits its taxpayer-funded helipad, two rival companies will begin testing a new route from the Hub to Gotham: seaplane.

New York-based Tailwind and Hyannis’ Cape Air will each test a nine-passenger Cessna Caravan in Boston Harbor, the Globe‘s Jon Chesto reports, following two years of discussions and preparations. If the seaplanes can handle the crowds in the harbor and in the airspace near Logan, the Federal Aviation Administration could designate Boston Harbor an approved take-off and landing zone.

With a federal green-light, seaplane shuttle service from New York to Boston could launch within a year, Chesto reports. Cape Air, run by state Sen. Dan Wolf, expects to run several flights between the two cities. Tailwind expects to charge around $1,000 for a round-trip ticket, while Cape Air indicated it’ll be in that ballpark, as well.