JetBlue Sign Joins the New York Skyline

By STUART ELLIOTT

Look, up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. Actually, it's a sign to promote a company that owns a lot of planes.

JetBlue Airways plans to unveil on Wednesday evening a sign atop its headquarters in Long Island City. The sign, which sits on about the 10th story, depicts the airline's logo in 15-foot letters.

The sign was built by the Going Sign Company of Plainview, N.Y. A time-lapse video of the construction can be watched on YouTube. During the day, the sign is to be blue. At night, it will be lit white from within by LED light strips.

The idea that JetBlue could add its name to the New York skyline was a reason the airline decided in 2010 to keep its corporate headquarters in Queens rather than move to Orlando, Fla. JetBlue, which uses the slogan “New York's hometown airline,” had been based in Forest Hills before it moved to Long Island City.

There is to be a ceremony introducing the sign starting at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the JetBlue headquarters, 27-01 Queens Plaza North between 27th and 28th Streets.

Among those scheduled to attend the ceremony are Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; David Barger, president and chief executive at JetBlue; Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York; and Jimmy Van Bramer, a City Council member.

Although the city's two airports are in Queens, many airlines have located signs not in that borough but rather in Manhattan.

The logo of Pan American World Airways was atop the Pan Am Building in Midtown Manhattan for many years. (The MetLife logo replaced it in 1993.) In the 1950s, Trans World Airlines had a colorful neon sign in Times Square. Currently, Times Square is home to the American Airlines Theater.