I recall sitting on a (ski) chairlift at Steamboat when JetBlue was just getting started. As often occurs, strangers on a 3 or 4 person chairlift start chatting, first questions usually “where are you from” and “what do you do”?
One skier said he was a JetBlue pilot, being unheard of that stimulated much conversation. He said (basically) that JetBlue had a real advantage due to much lower costs: no unions, no retiree benefits and health care costs. I remember thinking that didn’t speak well for ANY long existing US company.
Maybe age and loss of those newborn advantages has contributed to JetBlue’s decline?