No airport ever opens without a glitch, remember the great debarkle of Heathrow T5. So when JetBlue’s new JFK Terminal 5 opened, everyone wondered what would go wrong. The operational side had been tested, retested and tested again. It wouldn’t be a repeat of Heathrow. But just because Murphy likes to visit airports on their first day, everyone knew there’d be a problem.
In JetBlue’s case it turned out to be with their much awaited F&B offering. Kitchens around the central atrium couldn’t cook hot food because a fire alarm had cut off gas to their stoves. Computers went down with regularity, making credit card transactions glacial. Waitstaff were equally clueless about the complex menu items they had never served or even tasted. Larders were half full.
But to give OTG credit, nobody panicked, lost their temper or could be seen without a smile. And there was heaps of creativity. Sushi chefs from Deep Blue sliced their meager fish supply with resignation and apologetic table servers ran off and pinched soy sauce packets from other operators in the building. 5iveSteak didn’t have any of their 24-ounce porterhouse for $59 in stock & couldn’t have cooked it anyway. Nor could AeroNuova serve its special lasagna (which it accidently spelt as lasanga on the menu) or really anything else for that matter except for wine & cocktails.
But all was not lost, the Illy coffee shop still worked (the most important store in the airport in my opinion) and the wonderful Piquillo managed to churn out Barcelona-style tapas at a rate of knots. They also produced a mean Catalonian version of canneloni which is certainly worth a try.
Within the context of most other new terminal openings, it really was remarkably smooth.
