ChamplinAl

As we have seen numerous times in the past, NWA, as a company name, was lost with combining it with DAL. I seem to remember that the word takeover was used. Both were heading out of bankruptcy at that time. DAL was the "larger", of the two, so DAL was the resulting company name.

ty97

I can only guess, but I don't see the Northeast Alliance surviving if Jetblue wants approval for this merger.

hi55us

But from Jet Blue's perspective, the NWA might have been shot down even if they didn't pursue the merger. So in my mind they where faced with three scenarios:
- No NWA, acquire Spirit and get shot down over anti-trust concerns.
- Create the NWA and get shot down over anti-trust concerns
- Create the NWA, acquire Spirit and offer to ditch the NWA for the Spirit acquisition.

I can see why they went with the 3rd one. I definitely think the NWA is dead, but B6 would rather have a merger with Spirit than simply have a limited alliance with AA.

travelinmanS

More good news for consumers!! 😜

N830MH

Are they going orders more A220-100/300 or even -500 or A321neo or A321XLR aircraft. Once they merge with Spirit. The old Spirit name will be gone in 3 years. I'll believe it when I see it!

dls25

Good luck to JetBlue but I don't see this ending well.
THey are getting a bunch of planes and crews but nowhere to fly them as most of Spirit's network will not work with JetBlue's product and cost structure.

Orange County Commuter

Congratulations JetBlue you will now be able to call yourself the owner of the worst service model in the industry.

I knew there was a reason I decided not to book that flight the other day

beyondhere

Apparently, they will be inheriting a large LAS operation from Spirit. But, it's unclear to me if JetBlue's costs will work, but I suppose JetBlue will try to keep a large station there initially.

Many suggest JetBlue should try upping LAX/SFO to larger focuses, but I think the west coast is not their strong suit and they will be challenged with the competition. As JetBlue is a east coast airline and familiar with NE-Florida/Caribbean, it should look at keeping NK's presence at a few of its stations.

That means keeping MHT-Florida (MCO, FLL, MIA, TPA, RSW/PBI seasonal), and likewise with ACY. Trying to keep a decent station at MYR as well.

And for focuses, try to keep BWI as a decent size operation and maybe RDU. Flying BWI-LAX/SFO/SEA with the NK routes like ATL, DFW, IAH, ORD, etc. and Florida/sun routes as well.

JetBlue announced RDU-SFO but it was postponed. Indirectly, they'd grow in LAX/SFO in these cases, but it'd be from east coast spokes rather than it trying to compete on SFO-SEA, as an example.

There is a lot of Spirit's route network that seems incompatible. I can't see it wanting to keep a route like ORD-DFW, and there are rather small Spirit stations like MEM out there that it will have to figure out how to integrate.

michael1023

I feel like if they’re trying to compete with the large airlines , they really need some lounges.

BearX220

I agree. I made this point in the merger thread on the Spirit board, and I hope it's permissible to repeat / paraphrase it here: JetBlue's main customers now are (A) Wall Street and (B) the DOJ antitrust division, not you and me.

With regard to Wall Street: JetBlue's service differentiators have been eroding for years, inevitable casualties of scale and Wall Street pressure to align with lowest-common-denominator industry norms. Look what happened to free checked bags. I expect continued rapid growth will keep that trend going. A small niche airline can fly fewer seats per fuselage, charge less for them (sometimes), and escape the full wrath of industry analysts focused on quarterly earnings and nothing but. A big network airline, not so much.

TWA Comfort Class and AA MRTC both failed at scale. JetBlue's current coach standard is likely to follow. By the end of the decade I expect today's 32" pitch will be positioned as JetBlue E+, and the majority of inventory will be pitched like everyone else's main cabin. There are rumblings from B6 of a real F product, too, at a sub-Mint, sub-transcon level.

As for their other main customer, the DOJ ...

NYT coverage today / Friday has JetBlue promising to pour more lift into stations dominated by one or two incumbents, e.g., ATL, IAH, DFW, ORD, etc. This strategy is expressly designed to mollify antitrust skeptics: Oh, they'll give AA/UA/DL a real challenge. What's left unsaid is that a hub-and-spoke 400-airplane major carrier is liable to turn into another AA/UA/DL, not remain an insurgent inflicting downward price pressure.

40 years ago PeoplExpress cratered at scale; it couldn't manage itself as a big network airline and continue to provide rock-bottom fares. 15 or 20 years ago WN was crowing about the "Southwest effect" -- lower fares in markets they opened -- but nobody talks about that anymore. WN is often more expensive than the other three majors. There's not going to be a "JetBlue effect," either. There certainly was a "Spirit effect," but JetBlue is knocking Spirit off the chessboard.

GW McLintock

Ironically the "JetBlue effect" was mentioned in the TrueBlue email about this, and I had to laugh.

-J.

nerd

New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut...

GW McLintock

JetBlue goes to Rhode Island (PVD) and Connecticut (BDL).

-J.

nerd

Not according to the route map but I will take your word for it.

GW McLintock

In typical JB IT fashion the route map is probably broken. They have extensive service out of BDL (destinations include most of Florida, SJU, LAX, CUN, and seasonally LAS, SFO, and Even More cities in Florida) and from PVD they go to FLL, MCO, and PBI. Most of the Florida flights have been around for years, and the west coast and CUN routes are more recent.

-J.