Originally Posted by
bgasser
WN has figured out how to become the most profitable US airline without catering to corporate customers. B6 seems stuck in a weird spot, offering Mint but not having lounges. Its route network from JFK offers a lot of service to CA, Caribbean and FL, but not much frequency to the Midwest (CLE, CMH...) or TX. Hard for me to see the vision they have for themselves over the next 10 years.
JetBlue and WN are fundamentally different airlines due to their origin. JetBlue started off trying to replicate WN strategy with service to secondary airports like OAK, LGB and IAD. It's gone from all of them now and concentrate its service to the primary airport in the area. The reason is having a large base in JFK means you need to do a lot of transcon and international flying. That's what they are focused on. Also, they have to serve the travel demand of people in NY and Boston. Unfortunately, midwest is not very high on that list, so they are pretty underserved for JetBlue.
JetBlue right now is looking more and more like a legacy carrier without a national network. The TATL flying + additional slots and other benefits from relationship with AA is going to help it attract the top corporate dollars in firms with large northeast offices that have eluded them so far. At a particular point, there will be more and more request for lounge. And JetBlue will have to decide whether or not it's worth the cost. I would say when they do the JFK terminal expansion, it's a perfect time to add one for mint customers. We will see.