JFK-CLT upgrade to A320?
 

What do you guys think about the huge success of CLT, I was looking for flights for the weekend and everything is sold out. Even Monday has some sell-outs. Any chance this will go A320 soon? I'd like to see Parker's letter now about how Jetblue will be a non-presence down there.

A very good chance it may happen, here are today's loads, a saturday non-the-less

JFK-CLT
1081: booked 101
1083: booked 100
1085: booked 100
1087: booked 98

CLT-JFK
1082: booked 95
1084: booked 95
1086: booked 100
1080: booked 98

Seeing the weakest load at 95% capacity, It's great hearing this. Go B6!!

Tomorrow the weakest load is 90 and Monday the weakest load is 93. So it looks like a great start for the new station

Not to mention it looks like one of the JFK-CLT flights are sold out on Tuesday!

How are the RDU flights doing?

On a side note, I hear RIC, AUS, PWM and PIT are developing nicely as well. Don't know about JAX.

Thanks for the info everyone.

PWM has done poorly, but it should have been an E90 from the start.

Also, how can they have 101 seats sold when jetBlue never, ever overbooks?

Oversolds have been known to happen from time to time. Usually if 2 customers book at the same time it can oversell the flight or if the company has to put on "must rides" it will move it to oversold. It is a rare occurance but does happen from time to time.

Excellent!!! The loads has been done well for inaugural new flight CLT-JFK. What about does B6 will upgrade from E90 to A320?

Ad in today's Stamford Advocate from US highlighting Charlotte flights as low as $188 r/t. Funny

And remember that's from all 3 NYC airports which much better frequency ex-LGA and EWR.

Also remember, that's on an airline with one of the lowest ratings when it comes to customer experience and customer service. Those $188 r/t fares on US between CLT and NYC would not be available if it weren't for jetBlue. Up until recently, US "screwed" their customers with high airfares and crappy service. Today, they "screw" their customers with just crappy service. I'd also be willing to bet that those cheaper fares are much more likmited on US and their last-minute walk-up fares is much, much greater than jetBlue's.

According to a.net, PIT and RIC are struggling. RIC doesn't surprise me, but I thought that they said that PIT's initial bookings were strong? That is a market that I thought would be doing very well.

On a side note, according to multiple people on a.net, it seems that the marketing department is slacking in the newer markets. Apparently, there has next to nil marketing at BNA, and it is not much better at PIT. What's going on?

I thought is was suprising that B6 went with the A320 on the JFK-PWM route. I didn't question it because I thought they may have had research figures that proved it was worth running A320's up there. I hope that route works out for them

On a side note, is it just me or has B6 had a lot of new routes recently that have struggled? (ex. BUR to MCO/LAS is defunked, EWR/SJU is shutting down, JFK to PIT, RIC, PWM amoungst others rumored to struggle)

I could be wrong, but wasn't the idea behind the EWR/SJU flight to utilize a plane at night? I don't think that was a big loss to the system. And, yes, some cities are struggling, but some of the new cities are also doing well (CLT, RDU, JAX, AUS, BDA). However, I think that Jetblue may have a problem with their Columbus flights if they go in with little to no marketing in a smaller market, like RIC.

RIC just has too much NYC capacity right now
 

RIC is a very strong US and DL flyer base, and the fact that US has flooded the LGA-RIC route with frequencies and DL is on the JFK-RIC route, it's going to be tough for B6 to steal market share from anyone but leisure travellers. US is even competing on walkup fares on this route. And while, yes, B6 flights are more pleasant, who cares about that for such a short flight?

PWM is beginning to book really well. Infact, tomorrow ... B6 has 9 or less seats on most flights returning to JFK.

B6 would take BOS away from US if only B6 would ADVERTISE!!! PLEASE!! US is still raping the customers in PIT and we are letting them....well not me. I'll take B6 to BOS every time now and I'm a diehard US1 (chairman's). But there has to come a time when I say enough is enough w/ US.

Please tell B6 to spread the word they are in PIT. My mouth is only so BIG!

:D

I am going off of hearsay on a.net, but one member claimed that most flights were being booked in advance with fares around $60 to $90. I understand the bucket system used by Jetblue, but I wonder if they are trying to keep fares very low to entice travellers?

P.S. Memo to Jetblue marketing: Put your name out there. Even though the brand is massive on the east coast, it is still relatively new in the midwest. I remember hearing that when they established big plans for BOS, they put a full page ad at the front of the Boston Globe. Why wouldn't they be doing in PIT? That is a city with potential that is being slaughtered by their "hometown" carrier.

The NY-BOS and BOS-DCA markets are also predominantly US and DL flyer bases as well, but that hasn't prevented Jetblue from succeeding in those markets. They have been able to stimulate new traffic in those markets, and that was probably desired as well in Richmond. Now, maybe 4 flights a day is too much. Maybe they could take away two flights from RIC and add them to CLT, or start BOS-CLT. Again, I think this goes back to a lack of marketing in this smaller market, which makes me think twice about this approach when they enter Nashville and Columbus in the upcoming weeks.

I was on 1085 tonight (10/7) JFK-CLT. Sure enough, I booked it last week as an E190 and it was changed to an A320. It was still fairly full. I asked an FA just to make sure I was on the correct flight. She said that JFK-CLT has been such a success that they're upgrading to A320s.

Another employee told me that they're looking to add a fifth daily round trip on that route, if they can work out an open gate position.

My dad is flying JFK-CLT-JFK today...the first flight is about 90% and his return flight is 100%. Looks like this route turned out to be a major success...even so early in the game! Mr. Parker might need to re-think his strategy in terms of competing with jetBlue at CLT.

Love it
 

I love how Parker and US are eating his words. Story in USA Today about a week ago about how the merger is not going so well as before. Come on Jetblue how about CLT-FLL!

CLT and RDU to FLL and MCO would be nice. However, pickups of MSP, ORD/MDW, and STL from JFK/BOS would be great too.

I would not call that a rape.

I booked for 10/28 and 10/31 CLT-JFK-CLT, the flight numbers are greater than 1000, but when I went to the seat maps, it was 3x3 A320 both ways...

I am driving up from CAE, because for the price of one ticket on a legacy, I can fly 2 people up to NYC... Even with gas prices what they are....

It does not matter how high the loads are. What matters is the yield, which is difficult to determine. With the entire industry operating a record load factors, just about all flights to anywhere are close to full. Anyplace that is not running close to full loads all the time is probably either in bad shape or a hub operation trying to keep utilization high.

Actually, the record load factors on U.S. airlines have dwindled since the peak summer travel season. JetBlue has successfully maintained high loads in CLT even during this much slower season...not to mention the upgrade to A320's on this route!

You have a valid point and as I've mentioned earlier in this thread, jetBlue's fare structure on this route allows for nice yields. The lowest (non-sale) fare is just above break-even compared to CASM...then, factor in all the higher fares closer to date of departure. Therefore, when you have loads well above 90%, as in jetBlue's case, you're destined to make some nice money.

The flgiht numbers don't seem to be as good an indicator as they were before. I fly JFK-BOS 1002 pretty often and it's always operated with an A320.

So, JetBlue's LF in Sept was among the lowest in the industry: lower than every single legacy and only higher than Airtan and Southwest, while yield was among the lowest as well, regardless of some nice increase over last year, what is your interpretation?

First, LF's were pretty comparable across the board. B6's LF in 09/2006 was 72.6% while CO's was 75%. Not a big difference.

Of course, LF is essentially irrelevant if you're not making money. And while B6's yield may be a bit lower, too, they are aggressively growing in a very competitive marketplace. And B6 did make a little mony in the third quarter, although it was essentially a break-even.

I think the real test of their business model will be once their route expansion and the construction of their new T-5 terminal at JFK are complete.

Where did this information come from? JBLU has not released the earning yet for the third quarter. Do you know anything that SEC and the Street do not know yet?

CO LF was 78.6%, if you want it be to comparable, comparing only the domestic LF, it was 81.2% versus 72.6%.

If 5 points plus LF is not a big difference, what is?

Sorry, my mistake. The LF's are significantly different.

Most important, though, is the fact that CO made $61 million while B6 only made $2.7 million.

I think the most troubling is the fact the B6's labor costs increased by 25%...that's a huge jump in one quarter.

getting back to topic
 

Now that the airplane used on this route is the A320, do they still leave from CLT Concourse D or are they now leaving from Concourse A (the NON-HP/US flights)?

On the B6 website, they state that it might be possible to get on and off from the back of the plane at CLT; anyone done this?

received my answer from customer support that they usually use D6.