Originally Posted by
deskover54
I'm genuinely curious if people going to Manhattan really prefer JFK over EWR. I certainly don't, but maybe I'm an anomaly? I prefer LGA to JFK, it's 30 mins into the city!
I lived in Manhattan for 10 years, work there, have friends who live/work there, running the gamut from airline agnostic to hardcore brand loyalists. For locals who know how to get around, there really does not seem to be a dramatic preference of one versus the other when it comes to EWR and JFK. I think the perception is both are mildly inconvenient. LGA is a different story, historically the local Manhattan market has a strong preference for LGA over both EWR/JFK, but the construction there is a major, albeit temporary, headache.
In my estimation, it's the
inbound NYC traffic which looks at EWR as substantially less convenient than JFK to Manhattan. That's why Kirby's comments make sense to me. Previous management, coming from the Continental side, thought about the market from the position as an incumbent carrier in the NYC market and a distant also-ran on the West Coast.