I haven't heard any rumors, but JetBlue seems to be doing well in AUS. I don't know what kind of yields they're getting, but they are managing to fill the majority of their seats.

You can go to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and look at the on time summary statistics for B6 in AUS to determine how many flights B6 operated in and out of AUS for the month.

Choose "origin Airport" and when that screen comes up, enter AUS for the airport and JetBlue for the airline in the drop-down tables. Then enter your date range. (ex: January 19 through January 31, 2006 - the number of days jetBlue operated out of AUS in January.). The table that comes up will sub total B6 flights at the bottom (51) That's how many departures B6 operated from AUS in January.

Then go back and do the same thing only this time choose "destination airport" and repeat the above process. B6 had 52 arrivals at AUS in January for a total of 103 total flights.

Multiply 103 total flights by 100 seats on each flight and you come up with 10,300 available B6 seats in and out of AUS during the month of January.

Then, you can go here to see how many B6 passengers traveled in and out of AUS by month. In January, B6 flew 6,406 passengers in and out of AUS.

6,405 passengers flown divided by 10,300 available seats = 62.18% of all available B6 AUS seats filled - not bad for the first 13 days of new service by a new carrier.

Statistics for February show much improvement.

There were 112 departures and 112 arrivals for a total of 224 B6 flights at AUS in February which translates into 22,400 available seats. JetBlue carried 17,1777 passengers at AUS in February.

17, 177 passengers divided by 22,400 available seats = 76.68% of all available B6 AUS seats filled in February.

Historically, January and February aren't busy months for AUS, but March is either the second or third busiest month and BTS released their March statistics earlier this week.

There were 124 departures and 124 arrivals for a total of 248 B6 flights at AUS in March which translates into 24,800 available seats. JetBlue carried 21,362 passengers at AUS in March.

21,362 passengers divided by 24,800 available seats = 86.13% of all available B6 AUS seats filled for March.

The WCIT (World Congress on Information Technology) just wrapped up a 5 day conerence here in Austin with over 2000 delegates from 80 countries attending and it's hoped that this will bring new technology business to the city.

One of the articles I read earlier about WCIT mentioned that Austin ranked third as a US Technology center behind the Silicon Valley and Boston, so I think a SJC-AUS might work. I think AA is the only carrier that offers nonstop service in this market and it's 3 or 4 daily.

I believe SEA is Austin's most popular destination without nonstop service by any carrier, so that might be another route they could consider. There were 338 travelers per day on this route according to Q3 2005 statistics - the latest available.

OAK is another airport that has no nonstop service from AUS. FLL also doesn't have nonstop service. Since B6 already offers one daily OAK-FLL flight, why not supplement that with a one-stop OAK-AUS-FLL trip? That would give AUS nonstop service to two new cities and would add another freqency in the OAK-FLL market although it wouldn't be a nonstop.

The only nonstop service to Florida AUS currently has is one daily WN nonstop to TPA and one to MCO. Everything else requires a connection through HOU, DFW, IAH, MEM, or ATL.

Re: AUS - BUR

The Texas Film Commission is headquartered in Austin and we also have The Austin Flim Commission. which reports

For the past.six years, MovieMaker magazine has named Austin among the top moviemaking cities in the country. In 2004,.the Capital City.topped the list of "Top 10 Cities for Moviemakers" and took the #2 spot this year and last, just behind New York City.

More than.350 major features and made-for-television movies have been filmed in Austin over the past 20 years, not including.hundreds of.commercials and independent projects.

I think an AUS - BUR would work.

Unfortunately, didn't JetBlue recently say it was going to concentrate more on short-hauol flights? If so, that may rule out the longer-haul routes from AUS like SJC and BUR.

It will be interesting to see what JetBlue does the rest of the year.

Mike