New seaplane charter service takes off from shoreline

Seaplane begins chartering from Madison beach

MADISON — A clear Clear sky on a breezy, sunny day made for beautiful flying conditions as Capt. Captain. John Kelly landed an amphibious Cessna 208 Caravans airplane Thursday on the waters of West Wharf Beach, where people gathered to see the craft touch down.

Kelly is a pilot and coowner of Shoreline Aviation, which is now offering a seaplane charter service from West Wharf Beach in Madison to Manhattan, the Hamptons and along the Connecticut coast. The eight-passenger seaplane can fly people from Madison to New York City in 40 minutes and take people on sightseeing flights over the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound.

“On a beautiful day like this, it’s exciting, just majestic, and a nice memory for today,” said Ray Horwitz, who watched the landing while having brunch at a nearby restaurant. Shoreline Aviation, based at Tweed New Haven Airport, has roots in Madison, where it once operated out of Griswold Airport. But Kelly said with these seaplanes, Madison’s waters have become the new runway.

“They can land just about anywhere in coastal Connecticut or on the Connecticut River that we want to land,” he said. The company also charters into Essex and as far up as Glastonbury and Middletown, he said, but most of its flights go to the Hamptons and Martha’s Vineyard. From now to Nov. 30, sightseers can take a 30-45 minute flight along the Connecticut River to view fall foliage, or go across Long Island Sound over Montauk and the Hamptons along the South Shore. The sightseeing flights start at $250 per person. To charter a flight to New York City and land at the 23rd Street Seaplane Base costs $2,995.

“You can get there in 35 minutes and you’ve had a great ride, seen great sights along the shoreline, and got a great view of Manhattan,” Kelly said. If a person needed to go to the city for a quick meeting, he or she could be there in 30 minutes. The plane would wait for them and have them back in Madison before a train could ever get them home, Kelly said.

Shoreline Aviation is a New Haven company, but Kelly, a Guilford resident, said he likes offering the service locally.

“It’s great to offer a service to local people as well as New York(ers),” he said.

Madison-based travel agency Biehn Travel will facilitate the charter and sightseeing reservations.

The Madison Economic Development Commission and Beihn Travel set up a partnership with the Madison harbormaster to make sure boats are always available to take people from the shore to the plane and back.

“That is really the only missing link, to do this anywhere along the Connecticut coast,” Kelly said.

A seaplane from Shoreline Aviation takes off at West Wharf Beach in Madison Thursday. Below, community board members board a seaplane.