N830MH

Right again! They tried ATL-LGB/OAK in the past and it did not work out so well. Due to low demand. They pulling out of all ATL completely.

GW McLintock

There is another thing a lot of those cities have in common: a huge presence from Southwest Airlines.

-J.

ISTFlyer

JetBlue doesn't fly to BWI anymore ( at least for the moment ) which is also in the top 60.
They still have the BOS-BWI route on sale for 1 April and onwards but I highly doubt that it would resume.
If I'm not wrong, last winter ( pre-COVID ) Spirit also suspended that route for a while because of low demand.
I guess that people either prefer Southwest on that route or use the train which takes about 6 hours.

Plus, JetBlue failed to attract customers on IAD. They were flying JFK-IAD & BOS-IAD and they were significantly expensive than the US3 on most IAD-JFK/BOS-XXX routes so they weren't also able to attract connecting pax.

The non-presence of B6 in Chicago Midway, Dallas Love Field, and Oakland makes high sense as you mentioned; they serve airports in the same city or same area.

However, SNA might be a great gateway for B6. BOS-SNA and JFK-SNA with A220's would be really profitable and attract those wealthier people living in Orange County. As well as flights like SNA-SFO, SNA-SEA, etc... might also be successful.

tphuang

That's kind of transformation for JetBlue. They started off operating at the non-central airport and now LGB, OAK and IAD are all gone. I'm not sure if they will come back to BWI. I would imagine they have to at some point, since it's a major business market from Boston. I would like to see them bring back IAD, since that would allow them to connect DC area to LAX/SFO/AUS/SJU directly. I don't see that as a major priority for them right now. I'm sure they'd jump at the opportunity for more DCA slots. SNA to BOS/JFK/EWR with A220 is going to happen imo, but probably in 2022 or 2023.

Also, a good point on places like STL and MCI being dominated by WN. That's probably why they are not considering those 2 as much. IND, CVG and CMH are not dominated by WN. There could be a vacuum now that DL is shutting down CVG as a focus city and cut a couple of routes from IND.

sfozrhfco

Getting back into IAD to gain further relevance in SFO and LAX could make some sense. They would be another couple transcon routes to knock AS out of and become the alternative carrier to UA. That said, they likely would not be all that high yielding.
The fares from Oakland were rock bottom much of the year when they operated them before.

N830MH

No, absolutely not. They won't bring it back to Dulles again. Because it is very expensive and more competitive. They tried IAD-JFK/BOS before and it did not work. Due to low demand.

ISTFlyer

In addition, for the LAX/SFO sub-discussion from IAD, American has temporarily suspended their IAD-LAX route ( might not return back at all ) and in 2019, they constantly cancelled 1 out of 2 daily on this route for the majority of the time.

cmd320

I’d consider West Coast and Caribbean flights very different from JFK/BOS in this market. Demand to JFK/BOS was low because everyone flying there was doing so from DCA. AA and Delta have hourly shuttles plus there’s Acela from downtown.

In contrast, most LAX/SFO bound passengers are leaving from IAD.

N830MH

Right! Both DL & AA still have hourly shuttles flight from DCA-LGA/BOS and LGA-DCA. I believe they still have a high demand. This is only for business traveler. .

ISTFlyer

I flew LGA-DCA twice since the pandemic, both on a business day morning but a 06:00 am departure on AA. Both flights were on an A319 and the loads were about 20-25 passengers on both flights, some being connecting passengers. At that time both Virginia and the District of Columbia were not on the naughty state list ( that required a 14-day self-isolation ) of NYS.

First flight had 3/8 passengers in Domestic First, second flight had 5/8 passengers in Domestic First.

I assume that when Amtrak Northeast Regional prices are down to $29 and Acela are down to $69, there aren't that many people paying for a flight on that route, especially when AA Y is around $94 one-way. Also, AA is now down to 3 daily ( one morning, one afternoon, one evening departure ) from both cities.

I haven't flown DCA-BOS since the pandemic ( although I was supposed to in May 2020 ) so I can't comment on that

tphuang

BOS-IAD was actually doing reasonably well. JFK-IAD on the other hand was their worst performing route out of JFK. It just didn't make sense at the time for them to keep IAD open for just BOS. They ended up consolidating BOS-IAD capacity to DCA.

I say that IAD comes back at some point with service to BOS, SJU, LAX and SFO. Launching IAD-LAX/SFO doesn't make a lot of sense without mint. They won't get enough mint aircraft for a couple of years. So, we'd probably need to wait until 2023 or 2024 before they make the move.

1readyset2go

BNA-CUN is happening in March 3x a week. Glad to see a new route out of BNA

https://www.williamsonhomepage.com/b...0fbe25f2c.html

N830MH

They actually flew IAD-FLL/OAK/LAS/LGB/SMF/SAN before and this routes has been discontinued. They also tried IAD focus city and it did not work. Due to low demand.

AMflier

I'd love to see MEM added to the midwest list. NYC-MEM is either very expensive, or a convoluted routing. My associates there fly out of BNA because it's cheaper. It seems ripe for the B6 experience.
Though not a top 60 airport, it is a top 60 metro area by population.

IndustryLeading

they'll have plenty of MINT aircraft lying around. I dont expect LAX-PBI to be around much longer. Outside of some Thanksgiving traffic, that route has largely been a bust. Who knows what happens to MIA-LAX. Right now they have more MINT aircraft then they need.