Spain
Just under 6 hours (5hr 59min) of actual flight time and a rather frighteningly packaged set of cheese and breadsticks later, the inaugural flight of United's EWR-SCQ arrived at Santiago-Rosalia de Castro Airport in Spain. Right before arrival was a much more appetizing meal of french toast as well, far better than the packaged mid-flight cheese and breadsticks.
Santiago-Rosalia de Castro Airport had actually been closed for a month for renovations and repairs, and UA 222 was the very first flight to arrive since they had reopened. Super cool to see everyone so excited, from Spanish bagpipes (Galician gaita) and churros on arrival to the only moderately bump new EES immigration system for international arrivals into the European Union. We said farewell to most of the group, as they were wisely staying in Spain to soak in the sights, while only a bare handful of us were doing the immediate turn back to the USA on the return inaugural flight (SCQ-EWR, UA 221).
Turns out it was lucky I did the immediate turn. Ascending from the arrivals level on the ground floor to the departures level on the first floor, a massive display area discussing the history of Santiago de Compostela and its cathedral had been converted to the departure party for the SCQ-EWR inaugural. Managed to round up Thomas, Warren, and Warren's parents to attend the celebration. Was tons of fun, including a beautiful cake and the obligatory speeches, although I think only Warren and his parents were able to keep up, as my poor street-taco-ordering Spanish skills could not keep up. I can only say for sure that the mayor of Santaigo de Compostela, Goretti Sanmartin Rei, presented a very nice gift to United Airlines that Chief Customer Officer David Kinzelman was pleased to receive, then I unfortunately had to run off to catch my flight and could not stick around for the ribbon cutting and cake cutting.
SCQ is not a large airport, but much like Split Airport was at the start of the month, it is modern and efficient. Left the party about 20 minutes before boarding started, and easily made it through security and immigration in time to have a nice chat with the United employees setting up the brand-new operation at SCQ. They had the same commemorative cookies at the gate as they did the party, although aside from that, the only physical recognition it was an inaugural flight was a printed flyer.
Once back onboard N13710, it was very experienced and senior crew who clearly enjoyed their jobs. Several thank-you notes from the crew along with a beautiful presented but unfortunately mediocre tasting beef and potatoes lunch, a guessing game of the total years of service among the flight attendants, and some solid conversation with the other passengers onboard, including several United employees who had flown in early to help setup the new destination and were now heading home. Thomas, being quite flamboyant, had his usual outsized share of attention, and it was a mostly smooth flight and uneventful arrival back to Newark Airport, just over 7 hours after taking off.
Quite a fun experience as always, and definitely looking forward to my next inaugural flight.