JetBlue
"This article is about the American airline JetBlue. For the Pakistani airline of a similar name, please see Airblue"
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| Founded | 1998 | ||||||
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| Focus cities | John F. Kennedy International Airport Logan International Airport Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport Long Beach Airport Oakland International Airport Washington Dulles International Airport | ||||||
| Frequent-flyer program | trueBlue Flight Gratitude | ||||||
| Fleet size | 119 | ||||||
| Destinations | 53 | ||||||
| Parent company | JetBlue Airways Corporation | ||||||
| Headquarters | Forest Hills, New York City | ||||||
| Key people | David Neeleman (CEO) David Barger (President,COO) John Harvey (CFO) | ||||||
| Website | http://www.jetblue.com/ | ||||||
JetBlue Airways is an American low-cost airline owned by JetBlue Airways Corporation (Nasdaq: JBLU). The company is headquartered in the Forest Hills neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. Its home airport is located at John F. Kennedy International Airport. JetBlue is a non-union airline.
In 2001, JetBlue began a focus city operation at Long Beach in southern California near Los Angeles, and another at Logan International Airport, Boston in 2004. It also has substantial operations at Oakland International Airport, Fort Lauderdale, and at Washington-Dulles. The airline mainly serves destinations in the United States, along with flights to the Caribbean, the Bahamas, Bermuda, and Mexico.
JetBlue also maintains a corporate office in Template:USCity and a satellite office in Template:USCity.
History
Foundings
CEO David Neeleman founded the company in February of 1998, under the name "NewAir". Several of JetBlue's executives, including Neeleman, are former Southwest Airlines employees. JetBlue started by following Southwest's approach of offering low-cost travel, but sought to distinguish itself by its amenities, such as in-flight entertainment. In Neeleman's words, JetBlue looks "to bring humanity back to air travel."
JetBlue's founders had set out to call the airline "Taxi" and therefore have a yellow livery to associate the airline with New York. The idea was dropped, however, for several reasons: the negative connotation behind New York taxis; the ambiguity of the word taxi with regard to air traffic control; and threats from investor JP Morgan to pull its share ($20 million of the total $128 million) of the airline's initial funding unless the name was changed. The airline's founders also considered making its home base in Trenton, New Jersey, but this idea did not gain much support.
9/11 aftermath, profitable years
JetBlue was one of only a few U.S. airlines that made a profit during the sharp downturn in airline travel following the September 11, 2001 attacks. Since its IPO on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 2002, JetBlue has become one of the most popular airline stocks in history and currently has about two billion dollars in market capitalization. Financial results were strong for the airline throughout the 2002-2004 years, and many analysts and journalists lauded the airline for its success. The airline sector responded to JetBlue's market presence by starting mini-rival carriers: Delta Air Lines started Song, and United Airlines launched another rival called Ted. Song has since been disbanded and is being reabsorbed by Delta Air Lines. Ted is still in operation.
In 2002, JetBlue acquired LiveTV, LLC for $41 million in cash and the retirement of $39 million of LiveTV debt. LiveTV equips JetBlue with 36 channels of live DirecTV satellite TV programming at every seat. Two years later, JetBlue announced it would add 100 channels of XM Satellite Radio, Fox TV programs and 20th Century Fox movies to its in-flight entertainment. The movies are free on flights outside of the US mainland (as DirecTV service is not available), and are available for a small fee on other flights.
JetBlue has not yet attempted to raise money by selling snacks during flights, a move that many larger airlines have made on domestic flights and some international flights. JetBlue has also told customers in commercials and print ads that they "encourage you to use the call button", advertising their devotion to customer service. JetBlue is also noted for its "letter ads", for example: "Dear New York", and ending with "Sincerely, JetBlue".
As the airline continued to make record profits, new planes allowed for additional route opportunities. These included JetBlue's first international service, New York to the Dominican Republic, on June 10, 2004. Additional service to the Bahamas began on November 1, 2004, and service to Bermuda began May 4, 2006. Service to Aruba began September 15, 2006.
In 2004, JetBlue began flights from New York's LaGuardia Airport and added service in 2005 to Newark Liberty International Airport in Template:USCity, thereby serving all three major New York City area airports. Also in 2005, the company added service between JFK and Boston Logan with 10 daily flights using its new 100-seat Embraer 190 aircraft. In October 2006 JetBlue announced they would begin service from Stewart International Airport, in Newburgh, allowing JetBlue access to four of the six New York Center Airports.
Record high fuel prices
In October 2005, JetBlue announced that its quarterly profit had plunged from US$8.1 million to $2.7 million largely due to rising fuel costs. In addition, the airline was struggling with their new aircraft, the Embraer 190. Operational issues, fuel prices, and low fares, JetBlue's hallmark, were bringing its financial performance down. In addition, with higher costs related to the airline's numerous amenities, JetBlue was becoming less competitive.
Regardless, the airline continued to plan for growth. It was announced that 36 new aircraft were scheduled for delivery in the year 2006.
However, trouble was on the horizon. For many years, analysts had predicted that JetBlue's growth rate would become unsustainable. Despite this, the airline continued to add planes and routes to the fleet at a brisk pace. In addition in 2006, the IAM (International Association of Machinists) attempted to unionize JetBlue's "ramp service workers", in a move that was described by JetBlue's COO Dave Barger as "pretty hypocritical", as the IAM opposed JetBlue's creation when it was founded as New Air in 1998. The union organizing petition was dismissed by the National Mediation Board because fewer than 35% of eligible employees supported an election.
In February 2006, JetBlue announced its first ever quarterly loss. For 4th quarter 2005, the airline lost $42.4 million, enough to make them unprofitable for the entire year of 2005. The loss was the airline's first since going public in 2002. JetBlue also reported a loss in the 1st quarter 2006. In addition to that, JetBlue forecast a loss for 2006, citing high fuel prices, operating inefficiency, and fleet costs. During the first quarter report, CEO David Neeleman, President Dave Barger, and CFO John Owen released JetBlue's Return to Profitability (RTP) plan, stating in detail how they would curtail costs and improve revenue to regain profitability. JetBlue Airways moved out of the dark during the second quarter of 2006, beating Wall Street expectations by announcing a net profit of $14 million. That result was flat when compared to JetBlue’s results from the same quarter a year ago ($13 million), but it was double Wall Street forecasts of a $7 million profit, Reuters reports. The carrier said cost-cutting and stronger revenue helped it offset higher jet fuel costs. JetBlue’s second-quarter result follows two consecutive quarterly losses, something that spurred the carrier to take on a turnaround plan. The plan called for $50 million in annual cost cuts and a push to boost revenue by $30 million. In October 2006, JetBlue announced a net loss of $500,000 for Quarter 3, and a plan to regain that loss by deferring some of their E190 deliveries, and by selling 5 of their A320s.
In December 2006, JetBlue announced another component of the RTP, when they explained the reasoning behind their decision to remove a row of seats off their A320s. The removal of the seats will lighten the aircraft by 904 lbs., and will reduce the inflight crew size from 4 to 3 (per FAA regulation requiring 1 flight attendant per 50 seats), thus offsetting the lost revenue from the removal of seats, and further lightening the aircraft, resulting in less fuel burned. [1]
In January 2007, JetBlue announced it was back in the black with a fourth quarter profit for 2006, reversing a quarterly loss in the year-earlier period. As part of the RTP plan, 2006's full year loss was $1 million compared to 2005's full year loss of $20 million. JetBlue was one of the few major airlines to post a profit in the quarter.
Destinations
JetBlue Airways currently flies to 50 destinations in 6 countries, including Aruba, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and the United States, including Puerto Rico. The airline is adding its 51st destination on March 5, 2007 when it begins service from Westchester County's White Plains Airport, its 52nd destination on May 3, 2007 when it begins service to San Francisco, California, and its 53rd destination when the airline begins service to Nantucket, Massachusetts on May 24, 2007.
JetBlue has launched service to Pittsburgh in late June. Flights to Charlotte began July 12 and flights to Raleigh began July 20 and service to Nashville started August 31. Future plans call for expansion across the United States and into Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Flights to Aruba started September 15, 2006. JetBlue received authority to serve Cancún, Mexico, after having competed for the route against Delta Air Lines and USA 3000. They entered four new domestic markets in the fall of 2006 - Houston, Sarasota, Columbus, and Tucson.
Prior to the passage of the Wright Amendment Reform Act of 2006, JetBlue expressed an interest in serving its customers if the Wright Amendment was repealed. However, JetBlue opposed the current law, which requires their airplanes to actually have no wheels touching the ground for at least some duration of the flight. It has also expressed refusal to serve Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on the grounds that it does not wish to contend with American Airlines, which has a dominating presence there. [2]
On August 17, 2006, service between New York JFK and Washington-Dulles commenced, finalizing JetBlue's plan to connect the three major Northeast cities of Boston, New York, and Washington DC, and also putting pressure on the airlines that operate those routes, namely Delta Shuttle and US Airways Shuttle. Washington-Dulles offers eight nonstop destinations, and with the addition of service to New York-JFK, 45 destinations via connection in New York.
In October 2006, JetBlue applied to the FAA for landing rights at Chicago's O'Hare Airport for eight flights per day. [3] Almost immediately, United Airlines filed an objection, claiming JetBlue "did not follow proper procedures and should be denied".[4] On October 16, 2006, JetBlue received approval from the FAA to land at O'Hare, though the number of slots requested was cut in half to 4 flights per day.[5]
Alliances
On February 6, 2007, JetBlue announced it had entered an alliance with Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus. The alliance will facilitate easy transfers to both airlines' customers, but will not allow either airline to sell seats on the other airline, unlike traditional codeshare alliances, meaning customers must make individual reservations with both carriers.[6]
On February 14, 2007, JetBlue announced it had entered its first codeshare agreement with Cape Air, to carry JetBlue passengers from Boston's Logan Airport to Cape Air's destinations throughout Cape Cod and the surrounding islands. The agreement will allow customers on both airlines to purchase seats on both airlines under one reservation. This announcement came the same day that JetBlue announced seasonal service from New York to Nantucket[7]
New routes
- Nonstop service operating three times per week between Cancún, Mexico (CUN) and Boston, MA (BOS) begins March 2, 2007.
- Daily nonstop service between White Plains, NY (HPN) and Orlando, FL (MCO) begins March 28, 2007.
- Daily nonstop service between White Plains, NY (HPN) and Fort Lauderdale, FL (FLL) begins April 2, 2007.
- Daily nonstop service between White Plains, NY (HPN) and West Palm Beach, FL (PBI) begins April 2, 2007.
- Daily nonstop service between San Francisco, CA (SFO) and Boston, MA (BOS) begins May 3, 2007.
- Daily nonstop service between San Francisco, CA (SFO) and New York, NY (JFK) begins May 3, 2007.
- Daily nonstop seasonal service between Nantucket, MA (ACK) and New York, NY (JFK) begins May 24, 2007.
JetBlue announced in early January that they plan to serve eight new cities in 2007, although which cities they are to serve have not yet been released apart from Nantucket, San Francisco, and White Plains.
Negotiations with San Francisco
JetBlue has had very public negotiations with San Francisco (SFO) over running air routes through its airport. However, despite recent disagreements[citation needed], JetBlue has recently secured an agreement to run routes from San Francisco to both Boston and New York (see above).
Fleet
| Aircraft | Total | Passengers (Economy) |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airbus A320-200 | 96 (85 orders) |
150 | |
| Embraer 190 | 23 (79 orders) |
100 | Launch customer |
In the early history of JetBlue, the company's CEO, as he claims, had always sat on the 27th (last) row of each Airbus A320 aircraft he flew on, signifying that pleasing the customer is more important than pleasing the CEO, since the 27th row had no reclining seats. The 27th row has since been removed from the A320 fleet, adding up to 2" more legroom to all rows aft of the wing on all aircraft in the A320 and E190 fleets.
In December 2006, JetBlue announced they would be removing one more row of seats from their A320s, reducing the number of seats to 150. They also revealed they would adjust the remaining rows in the forward half of the cabin, increasing the seat pitch to 36", giving passengers more legroom than any other coach carrier. [9] Fleet modifications have been completed as of February 8th, 2007[citation needed]. At present, the A320 has a seat pitch of 36" in rows 1-11, and 34" in rows 12-25, with slightly over 36" in the two exit rows. The E190 has a seat pitch of 32" in rows 1-10, and 33" in rows 13-25, with a pitch of over 34" in the exit rows. The seat width on the A320 is 17.8", and the seat width on the E190 is 18.25". [10] [11]
In July 2005, JetBlue announced that it would be upgrading the size of its seatback TVs that provide customers with DirecTV programming. All new aircraft are being equipped with the larger seatback TVs, and older aircraft are being retrofitted. The E190s are all equipped with XM satellite radio, and the A320s are being XM equipped when each aircraft's TV screens are being upgraded. In addition, the airline aims to increase the size of the overhead bins on all aircraft. Unlike the A320 fleet that JetBlue uses where the flight attendant has to read the safety briefing, the E190 fleet uses a pre-recorded audio safety briefing to accompany the live demonstration.
Employees
JetBlue has around 11,000 employees; however, JetBlue prefers the term "Crewmembers." The major Pilot and Flight Attendant base is John F. Kennedy International Airport, followed by Boston's Logan International Airport, Fort Lauderdale International Airport, and Long Beach Municipal Airport. Customer support is handled via employees in Utah working from their homes, providing JetBlue with significant savings. JetBlue sells 20% of their tickets over the phone, with the remainder being sold online.
Trivia
- Nearly every plane in JetBlue's fleet is named with a designation containing some form of the word "blue". Examples include "Absolute Blue", "Big Blue Bus", "Blue Suede Shoes", "Canyon Blue", "Mi Corazon Azul", "Rhapsody in Blue", "Sacre Bleu!", "The name is Blue, JetBlue", and "Whole Lotta Blue".
- As of November 2006, there are two exceptions: tail number N190JB "Luiz F. Kahl", named for the former Chairman of the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, and tail number N533JB "Usto Schulz", named for JetBlue's VP of Safety.
- JetBlue also features the in-flight snack "Terra Blue chips", a brand of potato chips made from naturally blue potatoes, the official snack of JetBlue.
- Every year employees submit suggestions for the names of the new planes. Past winners have received trips to Toulouse, France to tour the Airbus hangar and fly home aboard the plane that bears their name suggestion.
- JetBlue conducts all long term maintenence on aircraft at a facility in El Salvador.
Incidents and accidents
- On September 21, 2005, Flight 292 performed an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport following a failure of the front landing gear during retraction. The plane landed after circling for three hours to burn fuel and lighten the aircraft. The aircraft came to a stop without incident on runway 25L. The only apparent damage to the plane upon landing was the destruction of the front tires; the front landing strut held. None of the passengers or flight crew aboard were injured. Passengers were able to watch coverage of the incident via onboard televisions. A sketch of the incident was aired on Saturday Night Live, with guest host Steve Carell. JetBlue does not serve LAX; the airline used a Continental Airlines hangar to evaluate and repair the aircraft.
- In the midst of snowy weather at John F. Kennedy International Airport on February 14, 2007, a JetBlue flight headed for Cancún, Mexico, was stranded on the tarmac for nearly nine hours as icing problems kept the plane from departing. Passengers were kept inside the aircraft for the full nine hours. JetBlue has since apologized, and has offered refunds and free round-trip tickets to the passengers involved. Throughout that day, several other JetBlue aircraft were also stranded and many JetBlue passengers were put onto flights that were already cancelled. [12]
See also
Books
Blue Streak by Barbara S. Peterson, Portfolio, 2004 ISBN 1-59184-058-9
References
- ^ JetBlue Airways Press Release: Taking the JetBlue Experience to New Heights December 14, 2006
- ^ USA Today Blog: Today In the Sky: JetBlue: DFW is not an option June 28, 2006
- ^ USA Today: JetBlue seeks to spread wings at already congested O'Hare October 5, 2006
- ^ Reuters: United objects to JetBlue's O'Hare plans October 5, 2006
- ^ Chicago Business: JetBlue gets OK for O'Hare flights October 16, 2006
- ^ JetBlue, Aer Lingus to forge world's first international discount alliance February 6, 2007
- ^ JetBlue Spreads Its Wings in New England in Marketing Partnership With Cape Air February 14, 2007
- ^ FAA Airline Certificate Information
- ^ JetBlue Airways Press Release: Taking the JetBlue Experience to New Heights Dec. 14, 2006
- ^ JetBlue Aircraft Statistics: A320
- ^ JetBlue Aircraft Statistics: E190
- ^ [1]