Originally Posted by
JetBlueFA
Most of my knowledge is pretty much self taught. Dietcoke can prolly back me up on this, but flying the line daily gives you a first hand look at how cities operate and what it takes for us to go into and stay in a city. We see many different things on a daily basis and can almost predict where the company will expand to, based on our preformance to cities of similiar size and our past expansion. I also do have a background inf business/finance so I do know a little about the aspects of the business.
I do believe LAX was suppose to be announced already, rumors from with in the company. Then things went down hill and other oppurtunities presented themselves. LAX up'd their landing fees and SFO lowered them for us. SFO has plenty of room for expansion
and it was a preemptive attack on Virgin America.
The pull out in ATL wasn't done for the reasons many people suspect. Not connecting ATL to JFK was a big mistake and helped contribute but it wasn't the main reason. Loads and profits out of ATL where doing very well, well enough to warrant us to stay. However at the time we entered ATL we where young and didn't have the necessary customer base or destinations to sustain ATL and the fight Delta was putting up. Delta wasn't the only one putting up a fight. The gound operations where also helping matters. Almost every time we landed and refuled, the fueler would arrive 10 to 15 minutes late and we would be forced to take a delay. I know nothing about how ATL operates and this may be very common, I don't know but this is what I was told by the former ATL station manager. Also operations would take forever loading and unloading our aircraft. I think with Delta's recent clogging of JFK with their Dash 8's will really make the company rethink ATL, especially now that we have the 190!
I'd almost place a bet that SFO sets the tone for any other major expansion in the future. This year we will continue to connect the dots to help alleviate some of the pressure on JFK until the new terminal opens up in mid 2008. This will also help reroute customers, aircraft, and crews should JFK run into any more major weather events. We really can't go into major details as it would violate terms of our employment but I think there are going to be some big announcements in 2008.
Most people think that Delta ran JetBlue out of ATL, well this is not true. JetBlue were run out of ATL by Airtran. At the time when we entered ATL JB management rightfully gauged Delta's reaction but they completely underestimated Airtran who cleverly wet leased Ryan international A320's to compete on our west coast routes. We probably could have put up a better fight but ATL was a major Hub to both Delta and Airtran and it made sense to shift the flying to other more profitable cities. I hope that this is the first and last time that another airline effectively runs us out of any city. I bet that we will return to ATL with at least JFK & BOS service in time. I bet that most of '08's growth will be on the west coast and involve the E190. JFK unfortunately is at saturation point mainly because of Delta's continued use of regional jets and Dash 8's. Whilst I believe that the latter have partially contributed to traffic delays I think that Delta is ultimately shooting itself in the foot as they are beginning to clog up their own system moreso than JetBlue's. As I am based in JFK I am witnessing more and more chaos weekly on the Delta ramp because there is very little room and aircraft are sitting longer waiting for gates to open up. I stopped commuting on Comair partly because of the extensive ramp delays and partly because of inept customer service agents who just didn't appear to give a damn. Please, these are my personal opinions so before I get Lynched I have also witnessed some very very poor costumer service on JetBlue as well. Additionally prior to the opening of our temporary terminal, or as we effectionately call it the Fema huts, Jetblue was also experiencing unacceptable ground delays for inbound traffic. I don't see these ground delays anymore, just perhaps during IROPS.