"Landings" by Air Jamaica

Air Jamaica has absolutely the best landings.

No, I haven't taken landed on every airline. I've rarely flown to Africa and Europe and have never flown to the Far East or Down Under.

But I have flown a lot on American Airlines, USAir, BWIA and Continental and a bit on AirTran, Southwest, JetBlue, Delta, British Airways, Virgin and a bunch of others I can't recall.

And, of those that I have frequented, Air Jamaica has the best landings.

They are smooth, and seem to have a soft double bounce that does not provoke that arm-rest grabbing feeling that comes with a teeth-rattling, harsh landing.

Now, I can't prove this, and given how much we Jamaicans defend Air Jamaica, I could be biased. Also, Air Jamaica is a former client of Framework Consulting, my firm. An Air Jamaica flight has pleasant memories which also make me doubt my impartiality, and I always feel at home on our flights.

So there are lots of reasons why I could be full of it.

I'm not claiming that Air Jamaica is the best airline around, as there are plenty of mistakes occurring all the time on flights that I've been on.

And... there are these landings. They are not always up to the high standard, but only rarely so. There is that slight acceleration at the end that turns downward motion into forward motion at the last minute, making the contact between wheels and tarmac feel like a skimming, rather than a "dropping."

And, there is the usual round of clapping.

I've flown with all sorts of national airlines, and we Jamaicans are the only ones who I've flown with that clap when the planes land in Jamaica. But who began this clapping? Who told us to do this? Where and when did it start?

Are we clapping the landing (unlikely) or the fact that we are happy about the destination in which we are landing?

I cannot tell, but I do know there is no better way to travel into and out of Jamaica than on our national airline.