JetBlue TrueBlue - JFK-TUS loads

Arizona Daily Star (Tucson local) reports over 3000 passengers departed (and 3000 arrived) on JetBlue flights for the month of October, that's about 100 per day, or 2/3 capacity.

Given that TUS is such a small airport I hope jetBlue will continue to serve TUS with these loads. I took JetBlue for the first time last week- very impressed with entertainment, snacks, seat pitch. Was able to swing a row of three seats for myself on both the redeye to JFK and the return, made for a nice nap.

If only I had known JetBlue was so nice I would have flown them more when I lived in New York....

Those numbers are not too bad for shut eye only service to a smaller market on the opposite end of the country from JFK. Did the article mention anything about the over all O&D between TUS-JFK/LGA/EWR on all carriers? If not, would anybody know what those figures would be and where I could find them?

Definitely not a bad start at all! Yields seem nice for the most part. While ~ 65% LF on average is nothing to write home about, as you both mentioned it is a small market on the other side of the country with one late night flight.

Also, my $.02:

TUS is a VERY new market for jetBlue and it will take some time for it to mature. JetBlue recently started service there and it is not even really peak season. I think Arizona sees tourism boost from around February through June. About a year from now, numbers should be a little better. Keep in mind, before jetBlue even announced service there, many foolks flying to/from JFK or other jetBlue cities might have had tickets already booked foro their travel date on another airline (be it from PHX nonstop or connecting from TUS). There is a growing corporate presence out there, real estate is good and University of Arizona has TONS of students who need to fly to NY and other jetBlue cities through JFK. I bet these ~65% loads will be more around ~75-85% once the market matures.

I went to school in Tucson and lived in NYC both before and after (Great to see the Wildcats win at MSG last night by the way!!!). I have talked about this new route with a lot of people, and among them, about 1/2 of them think its a tease that it is only a red-eye, as many people dont like them for various reasons. For the college demographic it works but for travelers paying for hotel rooms and getting there late on the west coast & getting there to early to check in on the east coast, its less than perfect.





Speaking of basketball, I had an idea last night at Madison Square Garden, after I met someone from Tucson who came to NYC via B6 for the game:

For cities that B6 flies to with big basketball or football programs at the colleges (ie. Tucson, Austin, LA, Durham, ), there should be packages/promotions catering to Alumni in the NYC area.

I had the idea as there is a huge Saturday afternoon UNC vs Arizona game in Tucson in January, and how cool it would be to take the red eye there Friday night, see the game and return on the Saturday redeye. Everyone who we told our idea to loved it, and it got a lot of people thinking of flying the new B6 JFK-TUS route for a basketball weekend, which they had not though of before. It would create a nice buzz on each campus....

to answer the first question, only inbound/ outbound traffic on airlines is reported, not the destination. JetBlue was dead last (11th out of the 11 airlines that fly to TUS), because they only have one flight a day. Southwest was first, with over 1 million passengers, I think UA and AA were up there also.

I liked the timing of the flights, I could spend the whole day in TUS and the whole next day in NYC. The return isn't a redeye, it leaves JFK at 7 PM and arrives 11 PM local time, again perfect for me because I live in TUS (hope to move back to NYC soon), I can spend the whole day in NYC yet sleep in my own bed.

The numbers are very good for a route that is only about six weeks old, peak tourist season is indeed Jan- March. UA just started TUS-IAD, these are the only two routes east of Chicago and north of Atlanta from TUS.

speaking of basketball, U of A is definitely my favorite PAC-10 team, but my alma mater is DUKE :) :) :) Can't wait for the Cats to beat the stuffing out of UNC :) :)