How bad was this spring? So cold, so rainy, that taking advantage of those cheap flights to Florida from Islip’s Long Island MacArthur Airport was necessary, even if it was for just 24 hours of sun, sand, turquoise waters and giant margaritas. Here's how it went: Hop on a Frontier Airlines flight to Fort Lauderdale from Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma. Credit: Barry Sloan If I’d been flying from JFK or LaGuardia, I would never have risked arriving at the airport just a over an hour before departure, but this was Islip, where there’s lots of parking just a few feet from the terminal, no traffic snarls, and lines to go through security are almost nonexistent.
MacArthur is nothing less than the airport of your dreams, perhaps Long Island’s greatest aviation achievement since Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field. It’s also where some of the most deeply discounted flights to Florida can be found, like the one I took on Frontier Airlines to Fort Lauderdale. I boarded at 9:01 a.
m., the aircraft door was closed by 9:31 and the plane actually left on time, at 9:43. Perhaps because of the pleasant fares and MacArthur’s relaxed atmosphere, I found my fellow passengers to be unusually pleasant and relaxed as well, freely exchanging seats so couples could sit together, chatting happily with strangers and the like.
Somewhat unbelievably, I paid just $56 for a round-trip ticket on a weekday morning, although for that price I forfeited the right to choose m.
