JetBlue attendants hang
loose in Termal 5

JetBlue Airways has migrated from Terminal 6 to Terminal 5 at New York-Based JFK Airport.

Unlike the much-older Terminal 6, Terminal 5 features a 20-lane security checkpoint, a children's play area, and free wireless internet access. It covers over 635,000 square feet and cost over $800 million to build.

The real news, however, was not the transition from one landing strip to another — it was the way JetBlue communicated it to users: via microblogging site Twitter, where it provided real-time updates on maiden departures, reports The New York Times blog.

Tweeting in earnest began on the 21st of October, when JetBlue published the following message to its 5,400 "followers":

Flt 194 LAS-JFK taxis to its gate: Our last flight into JFK’s T6.

Translation: The final inbound flight (194) to JetBlue's Terminal 6 at JFK arrived from Las Vegas.

Departure "countdown" was also documented. "In less than nine hours our last flight out of Terminal 6 at JFK will push back from the gate. T5 is open tomorrow!" the airline wrote.

The first arrival into Terminal 5 pulled in at 5:05 AM. Cheering JetBlue staff members, bearing balloons, appeared on deck to greet the flight crew and arrivals. Photos and insights on the new terminal were recorded on the JetBlue blog, linked from its Twitter account. Throughout the event, employees wore light blue shirts bearing the words "Just Ask," an approachable shorthand for its latest campaign.

For a perspective on using Twitter for branding efforts, see "How-To: Using Twitter to Build Brand Integrity."

Image Credit: Images of JetBlue attendants came from T508.wordpress.com, JetBlue's Terminal 5 campaign blog.