tolkiennut

I regularly fly out of MDT, and our top O&D city of Orlando will lose direct service with the loss of Airtran service.

Any chance JetBlue looks at any of these cities losing service?

Brigri

I think there is more of chance that they increase service at HPN and SRQ since they have been very successful already at both those airports.

rtalk25

I agree they'll probably increase service at HPN and SRQ somehow.

At MDT, they can pick up MDT-MCO/FLL, and add MDT-JFK.
At ABE, they can fly ABE-MCO/FLL, and maybe ABE-BOS.
So, JetBlue could be a lot better than AirTran was ever to those markets.

However, it might make sense to focus on BWI first, as it's a bigger market with pre-existing service.

At BWI where BOS service exists, JetBlue could add Florida service. For the major east markets, it seems to make sense to have northbound and network access, and nonstop Florida city access.

The benefit for Baltimoreans will be better in flight experience over Southwest. Baltimore is big enough to have two carriers with nonstop to MCO and FLL. JetBlue could also codeshare with Cape Air, like how it does at BOS, but here on LNS-BWI with connection to Florida, but that might interfere with being at MDT-Florida.

JetBlue tried CLT-FLL and ceased it, as CLT was apparently very competitive being a US hub. Maybe JetBlue is more comfortable competing against Southwest over US Airways, atleast as seen with markets like BDL having more service over CLT and avoidance to go into PHL.

Maybe JetBlue could add some service to MIA, and fly BWI-MIA which AirTran flied. Or, it could just focus on FLL, and do what Spirit and Southwest do and connect FLL to MCO, which might be ideal for connections - as some cities might only have nonstop access to one of them.

PHL is a geographic hole, and maybe they could also add PHL-BOS but with only northbound service, it's a paltry amount of service for PHL which would be competitive. PHL-MCO/FLL would be a lot of service by three carriers.

Other dumped AirTran markets in the east or near the east:
PHF - they could pick up PHF-BOS, and add PHL-JFK.
TYS-maybe they would go in there, but it's out of the Northeast.

Not dumped but
ATL-might make sense to go in there now, as the market is big to become fragmented with representation from all the major airlines, and some who flew AirTran might not want to fly Southwest.
RDU-provide MCO and FLL. Right now, only 1 of the two are offered - forget which one.
GSO-Large metropolitan area between CLT and RDU. Might make sense to get in there before Southwest.

Brigri

We are still waiting to see what they do with the new LGA and DCA slots, I think that is first and foremost on the route planning guys plates.

Also, Mr. Barger met with PVD officials the other night, so maybe we'll see some FLL and MCO out of there.

Jetblue has been very good lately about being smart with new routes, BDL has been very succesfull so far so maybe some new routes from there.

Overall, I think they will analyze these new Airtran dropped cities and routes and will be able to manuever accordingly. They have new planes coming on board this year and will need to place them into the network.

Oh and don't forget about the AA opportunities out there......

Interesting times......

bmg42000

If they get the slots from Airtran (at HPN) and I am sure they would just increase the florida flights . I am sure they would look to take advantage of these flights (maybe HPN to a different florida city ) , but we shall see.

adamj023

I believe everyone should have the opportunity to fly, but they need to make more efficient use of their hubs bypassing the old smaller planes.

So those smaller airports should get bigger jet service at a less frequent basis but they may entail more connections.

But face it, some locations just won't be profitable no matter how they do it so people will have to make other arrangements to larger airports.

If an airport is too small for a big jet and doesn't have a large population, it seems likely that many of these spots will lose service at the moment.

If communities reinvest in larger airports then I don't see why the carriers couldn't serve them with the larger jets just adding one more connection on some flights.

kwildnj

Have we heard anything with AirTran reducing service @ HPN?


If they do give up some slots, It would be a bit of a stretch, but I could see JetBlue adding LGB/LAX/LAS/SFO service. The latter 3 would served O-D traffic, while also allowing connections to HA aervice to HNL/OGG, if timed right.


Might be a total stretch, but currently HPN will only get you as far west as ORD......

grt2106

Love HPN but I wouldn't be shocked if there is a reason they don't already have transcon flights.

201flyer

There is a perfectly good reason that no airline flies between HPN and the west coast. It is because there is an agreement in place between the airport and the local NIMBYs that no commercial aircraft above a certain size will be allowed to serve HPN. In the case of B6 this means that they can only use their E190s, not their A320s.

When Airtran leaves B6 will probably just apply for more flights to Florida. Though I guess that any other B6 station within the range of of the E190 and not requiring customs on the US side is theoretically a possibly.

bmg42000

I have flown on A320's from HPN. There is a limit on the number of passengers that can fly per hour.

201flyer

Yes, JetBlue used to fly A320s from HPN. But they switched to all E190s sometime last year, presumably due to pressure from NIMBYs.

Much discussion of whether or not JetBlue was violating HPN weight restrictions in this article:

http://rye.patch.com/articles/county...ational-flight

A quote from JetBlue's Manager of Communications for Latin America and the Caribbean in the article above:

"we recently shifted from our A320 fleet to the E190’s to make sure we met the 240 passenger/hour allocation at all times of the day. We were not in violation of any weight limits; we removed the A320 due to passenger allocations and commercial optimization, and not due to any weight issues."

Others disagreed.