JetBlue wins round 1 of JFK - West Coast Battles..

aerbase

Member
Aug 20, 2002
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Effective with the 3/02/03 schedule change:
AA will discontinue JFK-OAK, but will add a third JFK-LGB.
Will Jetblue adjust their JFK-OAK schedule to take up the slack.. or perhaps there ain''t much slack out there on this route? Any comments?
 
Its probably in response to how the Raiders performed last Sunday...

OAK by itself might be considered a victory, but by dropping JFK-OAK, AA is adding service on JFK-SJC, JFK-LGB and JFK-LAX.

I'm not sure what slack existed in OAK, especially if UAL is offering fire-sale prices out of SFO...
 
According to David Neeleman (quarterly conference call), jetBlue maintained a yield and load factor premium over AA in this market. His numbers had jetBlue with an average load factor of 85% (versus AA's 68%), and an average one-way fare of $160 (versus AA's $148).
 
JetBlue today announced the addition of 2 more JFK-LGB (total 7), 2 more JFK-OAK (total 6), and 1 more IAD-LGB (total 3) nonstop round trip flights between now and June. Here's the [A href="http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/030204/42348_1.html"]press release[/A].
 
I think its safe to say that the "local" Long Beach market is not that robust to support this level of service all by itself. Therefore, jetBlue is pulling traffic out of LAX at the continued expense of AAL, DAL, & UAL.
 
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On 2/4/2003 2:07:55 PM Speedbird wrote:

I think its safe to say that the "local" Long Beach market is not that robust to support this level of service all by itself. Therefore, jetBlue is pulling traffic out of LAX at the continued expense of AAL, DAL, & UAL.
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Much of the traffic going into LAX most likely are not passengers staying within the L.A. city limits. This airport serves many communities that surround LAX, including Long Beach. Long Beach, in turn, serves much of the surrounding community. The catchment area for LGB is huge!!! Many people would rather fly into LGB then LAX simply because it's so much less of a hassle. LGB is a small airport with easy parking, not much in the way of security hassles. LAX is one of the largest and busiest airports in the world with often long security waits and inconvenient and very expensive parking. With LGB just 20-30 minutes down 405, why not choose LGB?

Jet Blue doesn't have to "stimulate" traffic at LGB. AA, DL, CO, UA, NW, etc. have done that for years - at LAX. People are very willing to drive an extra 20 minutes (or in many cases, save an extra 20 minutes of drive time) to save hundreds of dollars. WN "stimulated" traffic at airports like ISP, MHT, PVD, etc. - they are not nearly as convenient to the NYC, BOS areas as LGB is to the LAX area.
 
Its called stimulating a market. Yes there are probably a few people going to LGB. But just like WN sometimes they stimulate a market for everyone to share. Remember Peoplexpress? They opened up alot of markets out of EWR that to this day make the majors money.