Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles returned to the skies together Thursday for the first time since landing a plane on the Hudson River in January.

"It's good to be back at work. It's good to be back in New York," said Sullenberger.

While they were originally scheduled for their first flight to be from LaGuardia to Charlotte, NC, they took an earlier flight from Charlotte en route to LaGuardia.

The LaGuardia to Charlotte route was the same as the pair was flying in January when a flock of Canada geese knocked out both engines, forcing them to land the Airbus A320 on the Hudson River.

All 155 people on board survived.

"There are three reasons that I came back to work," Sullenberger said following the first leg of today's flight. "The first is I wanted to fly with Jeff again; second, I wanted to have, even though we had a great outcome on January 15, I wanted to have another flight after that one. And the third reason is I felt an obligation to my profession, to my company to come back. It is my profession. The US Airways family is my family."

According to those on Thursday morning's flight, Sullenberger got a huge round of applause when he came on the intercom to greet passengers. The captain expected nice weather and smooth flying for the day's second flight.

"I was home. It felt very natural, very comfortable, and even though it was many months it felt like it had been very little time at all," said Sullenberger. "And I think that when you get to the point where Jeffrey and I have gotten where you have done it for so many decades and so many thousands of hours it becomes part of who you are."

"I have never flown with anybody who takes such care with what they do both in the cockpit and out of the cockpit," said Skiles, "and I will always consider myself to be extraordinarily lucky to have flown with him on that day, today and hopefully in the future."

One of the passengers on Flight 1549, Barry Leonard, was also on the reunion flight.

"I was on their last flight and now I'm on their first flight again," he said. "And honestly, to me it's just a pleasure and I really think it's part of the healing process with me."

Other passengers shared the same confident feelings.

"People before we were boarding were updating Facebook and Twitter and saying 'I'm flying with Sully today,'" said passenger Aaron Ellison. "I actually did my Facebook page the same thing. People applauded when he announced his name, as well as when we landed, they applauded again. Little nervous going over the Hudson, but it was smooth."

"[I felt] truly blessed to be on his flight," said another passenger.

A spokesperson for US Airways says that Sullenberger actually flew two passenger flights on September 11 as part of his retraining process. Skiles starting flying again in April.

Sullenberger will be making regular flights for US Airways and he has also joined the company's safety management team.

Meanwhile, New York Waterways promoted an employee who had a hand in the Flight 1549 rescue operation.

The ferry company's officials said Director of Operations Alan Warren is now the Vice President of Operations.

Warren supervised the rescue of 143 people from the frigid waters back in January.