Jetblue Eyes Flights To Canada, Mexico

[BillLumbergh]

Tuesday, November 23, 2004 Posted: 9:15 AM EST (1415 GMT)

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Airfare pressures on U.S. transcontinental routes have eased, as some airlines have cut service on those routes, paving the way for higher fares, chief executive of low-cost carrier JetBlue Airways said in an interview.

"The worst is over in transcon," JetBlue Chief Executive David Neeleman told Reuters in an interview. Transcontinental routes were a major force in the fare wars among airlines in the past year.

JetBlue eyes flights to Canada, Mexico

 

[JFK777]

Now that JB has flown from JFK to about every where they can in California & Florida; they are growing LGA to Florida too. What's the next concentration going to be? The Caribean? Remember AA looks after its own there, and they carry lots of freight with those awful A300's, A320 are great but not for bulky heavy freight. JB would be better to go Boston and Dulles and do what they did with JFK all over again, in smaller scale. JB needs another place with high fares they can do something with maybe in Orlando as I have heard they are going to do. I think JB should do something bold and contrarian.

They should lease Delta's old DFW terminal, AA has high fares at DFW just waiting for the JB treatment. Everything JB has done is contrarian, new planes, JFk, no First Class, DFW doesn;t have Southwest so why not take a shot. The Dallas- Fort Worth area is huge with many corporations and a high income population. Its in the middle 3 hours from about every place in America, sounds just like what Dave has been looking for.

 

[Daedalus]

.......They should lease Delta's old DFW terminal, AA has high fares at DFW just waiting for the JB treatment. Everything JB has done is contrarian, new planes, JFk, no First Class, DFW doesn;t have Southwest so why not take a shot. The Dallas- Fort Worth area is huge with many corporations and a high income population. Its in the middle 3 hours from about every place in America, sounds just like what Dave has been looking for.

[post="203947"][/post]​

I think that jetBlue may make a move into DFW if and when AAI gets the ATA bid as advertised. Joe Leonard himself said that their DFW operations would take a back-seat to Midway as AAI focused on ramping up their operations in Chicago ASAP. Considering the unexpected resonse AAI made to jetBlue's Atlanta service last year David Neeleman et al, do not want to make the same strategic error. With AAI's management efforts fully focused on Midway and Southwest it should allow jetBlue to pull the trigger on opening DFW-JFK/LGB service without AAI putting up much fuss. Of course AA will have it's say about that but so far they've been unable to stop jetBlue in any of the markets they have competed in over the last couple of years.

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

I just looked at B6's route system, and was shocked to see that JB (at this point in time) Does NOT fly to ORD/MDW !!!!!!!!!

Interesting !!

NH/BB's

 

[Flying Titan]

I just looked at B6's route system, and was shocked to see that JB (at this point in time) Does NOT fly to ORD/MDW !!!!!!!!!

Interesting !!

NH/BB's

[post="204178"][/post]​

JetBlue has expressed interest in Chicago, but has said it only wants to go into O'Hare. O'Hare has tried to lure JetBlue service, but has not been able to provide the gate space that JetBlue was asking for. Both the airline and the airport say they should be able to find a way to work this out, but nobody is predicting when.

 

[Whadayano]

JBLU has said they need 2 gates and they want them contiguous--apparently a tall order at O'Hare.

 

[Bizman]

Tuesday, November 23, 2004 Posted: 9:15 AM EST (1415 GMT)

JetBlue eyes flights to Canada, Mexico

[post="203523"][/post]​

Looks like JB is trying to enhance their revenue like all the legacy carriers are doing by concentrating on the international expansion. Wall Street reported WN is likely to be the only carrier to report a profit in the 4th quarter. Stating JB and AAI will report losses. So much for the darlings of the industry.

 

[coolflyingfool]

Looks like B6 helped AWA make their decision to get out of all but 2 of the transcons. That should help to give B6 some pricing power in those long haul markets!! Go Blue!!

 

[Hopeful]

Why doesn't JetBlue fly to El Salvador? It is better to fly a revenue flight there rather than empty so maintenance can be done!



By SUSAN CAREY in Chicago and ALEX FRANGOS in Comalapa, El Salvador
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
January 21, 2005; Page A1

JetBlue Airways doesn't offer passenger service to El Salvador. But this year, the discount airline will fly at least 17 of its 68 Airbus A320 jets to that country.

There, over six days, local mechanics working for an aircraft-overhaul shop under contract to JetBlue will inspect each plane nose to tail. They'll examine hydraulic and pneumatic systems, lubricate joints, service brakes and paint tray tables and toilet seats. Then the jets will fly back to the U.S.

America West Airlines also is sending some of its planes to El Salvador for checkups required by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. Northwest Airlines flies wide-body jets to Singapore and Hong Kong for service by outside contractors.

As beleaguered U.S. airlines seek to cut costs, they are outsourcing a job that is crucial to passenger safety: long-term maintenance. While airlines continue to use their own mechanics for lighter maintenance between flights to ensure punctuality, half of U.S. carriers' heavy-overhaul work is now performed by outside vendors in the U.S. and overseas. That's up from less than a third in 1990, says consulting firm BACK Aviation Solutions in New Haven, Conn. The world-wide aircraft maintenance market is worth an estimated $37 billion annually.

Although U.S. airlines have had a good safety record recently, with 34 deaths from crashes on scheduled commercial flights between 2002 and 2004, some experts worry that the shift of work to third parties could result in weaker regulatory scrutiny. Only supervisors at the outside repair stations -- not individual mechanics -- must be licensed by the FAA. At some shops, workers tend to be more transient and less well-trained than those employed by the airlines. Meanwhile the major U.S. airlines have been furloughing veteran mechanics.