We had a fantastic day of celebration Sun. March 3 when Friends of GNV assembled to celebrate and welcome our new non-stop service to Dallas/Fort Worth on American Airlines!
We served a spectacular and delicious showstopper cake, beautifully created by Maria Rizzo at Sugar, Refined bakery in Newberry. Her design, “GNV, DFW and the World” featured both almond and chocolate Texas Sheet Cake wrapped in beautiful sky blue fondant. Atop the cake were our K9 sniffer, Beamer and an American Airlines ERJ-145 floating on a fluffy cloud. Beneath that, the Gainesville layer, festooned with UF Gator pride, clouds, and an airplane making its way down to the DFW layer. The middle (chocolate) layer featured the famed Dallas Skyline, the Cowboys’ star logo, and the gate to the South Fork Ranch, with a continuing dotted line down to the base layer: The World. A deep blue map of the seven continents of the world was spread across the bottom layer, along with the final destination of the airplane: “THE WORLD”. The cake won the coveted “Cake of the Week” award from Anna Aero; beating out inaugural cakes from Budapest (Hungary), Riga (Latvia), Kuala Lumpur, La Crosse (Wisconsin), Kannur, (India), Derry (Scotland), Muscat (Oman), Kharkiv (Ukraine)…see their writeup here
We enjoyed hearing speeches about why this nonstop service is so important from City Commisioner and Mayor Pro-Tem Adrian Hayes-Santos; UF Senior VP and Chief Operating Office Charlie Lane; Gainesville Alachua County Regional Airport Authority (GACRAA) Chair Bob Page, and GNV CEO Allan Penksa. Musical duo Gosia and Ali entertained the crowd with upbeat and festive tunes, such as “Come Fly with Me”; “Theme from Dallas”; “Feelin’ Groovy”, and “All My Exes Live in Texas”.
The incoming flight, American Airlines 3369, was greeted by a celebratory water cannon salute from the two GNV Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) trucks, while reporters captured the moment with cameras clicking and whirring, and airport personnel waving and cheering.
Photo Credit: John Sprague, GNV
The 37 incoming passengers from Dallas entered a warm welcome celebration, with wellwishers forming two lines for them to walk through. Gift bags were given to arriving and departing DFW passengers, and a great time was had by all!
We thank Mint House, who compiled this wonderful video showing some of the highlights of the day:
THANK YOU FOR FLYING GNV!!!
