Sonny Barger gives us a hint

[lowecur]

Looks like Jetblue may be closing some non performing cities and routes after the 60 day brainstorm session is over. This from the Wall St Journal yesterday:

WSJ: You went straight from college to New York Air and then Continental Airlines. You're known as the 'operator.' How is JetBlue going to be different under your leadership?

Mr. Barger: What's the report card on the 128 airplanes being deployed today? Has every airplane earned its way into the route network or the fleet plan? We're going to continue to grow, but let's just calm it down. As the eighth-largest airline in the country, you can't turn on a dime any more. You want to be able to move with alacrity when opportunities present themselves, but behind the scenes be very deliberate.

WSJ: Mr. Neeleman said things fell apart in February because JetBlue hadn't kept up with its growth and 'lost control.' When did you first start to worry that the company wasn't managing the transition between upstart and major airline?

Mr. Barger: There wasn't an event or a meeting, but there were smoke signals, whether it was the cost creep or the decision to take on 35 airplanes a year. We ended up with a unionization effort within our airport group. What triggered that? What weren't we doing right?

[A consultant] said, 'You keep blowing the same candles out.' You end up trying to fix the same problem the same way, or the same problem crops up and you try another fix, but there's not a comprehensive fix. As a leadership team, you better be listening to the signals because otherwise here's the next airplane and the next new city and we're going to blow the same candles out again.

WSJ: The airline business has reinvigorated network carriers, discounters continue to grow, and new airlines like Skybus and Virgin America are coming along. How is JetBlue coping with intensifying domestic competition?

Mr. Barger: Our cost structure, while we can always hone it, is in very good position. Make sure we continue to keep the product fresh. Our ability to really compete on a cost and a product standpoint really positions us well for the future. You can't rest on your laurels when Consumer Reports comes out and says JetBlue is the top airline. We have a responsibility to make sure, if something's not performing, let's redeploy the airplanes.

WSJ: Wall Street says it loves the airline, hates the stock. What do you do about that?

Mr. Barger: Our mission is to really, with rigor, review what we're doing today. Let's manage the company: 128 airplanes, 54 cities, let's evaluate. However, are we deploying our newest asset, the [Embraer] 190? I think every airline would love to have a 100-seat airplane they could deploy across North America. Many of them can't. From a revenue perspective, there is plenty of running room for our brand, and not just in the domestic U.S. Let's look at Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean. I really believe the share price will take care of itself.

Sounds like he is not happy with deploying a/c on unprofitable routes. Wonder how those Shuttles are doing? Do you think maybe those a/c could pull a better yield elsewhere? Pittsburgh is a non performer. My guess is they are gone, along with quite a few other non performing cities. They need to build out the cities that are performing and close those that are not. More reason to reinstate the 190 deliveries and sell more 320s.

imp:​

 

[Kharma Police]

WSJ: You went straight from college to New York Air and then Continental Airlines. You're known as the 'operator.' How is JetBlue going to be different under your leadership?

One of Lorenzo's proteges?

 

[zkmayo]

One of Lorenzo's proteges?

If you had ever met Barger, ie Dave, you would instantly know that he is not a protege of Lorenzo. He is the exact opposite. He will tell you that Lorenzo, Ichan, and Crandall should not be allowed to ever work in the airline industry. You will be hard pressed to find a JB pilot who is not very, very happy is our CEO.

 

[IB6 UB9]

Agreed.

 

[puddlejumper101]

George Soros just gave back or sold $20.5M of Jetblue shares...what was that all about? Just read it on the Wall Street Journal. Anytime that happens you wonder what's next.

 

[Kharma Police]

If you had ever met Barger, ie Dave, you would instantly know that he is not a protege of Lorenzo. He is the exact opposite. He will tell you that Lorenzo, Ichan, and Crandall should not be allowed to ever work in the airline industry. You will be hard pressed to find a JB pilot who is not very, very happy is our CEO.

I doubt he made that comment in reference to Robert Crandall. Not a winner in any popularity contest, but one of the best.

 

[JetFumes]

Looks like Jetblue may be closing some non performing cities and routes after the 60 day brainstorm session is over. This from the Wall St Journal yesterday:

WSJ: You went straight from college to New York Air and then Continental Airlines. You're known as the 'operator.' How is JetBlue going to be different under your leadership?

Mr. Barger: What's the report card on the 128 airplanes being deployed today? Has every airplane earned its way into the route network or the fleet plan? We're going to continue to grow, but let's just calm it down. As the eighth-largest airline in the country, you can't turn on a dime any more. You want to be able to move with alacrity when opportunities present themselves, but behind the scenes be very deliberate.

WSJ: Mr. Neeleman said things fell apart in February because JetBlue hadn't kept up with its growth and 'lost control.' When did you first start to worry that the company wasn't managing the transition between upstart and major airline?

Mr. Barger: There wasn't an event or a meeting, but there were smoke signals, whether it was the cost creep or the decision to take on 35 airplanes a year. We ended up with a unionization effort within our airport group. What triggered that? What weren't we doing right?

[A consultant] said, 'You keep blowing the same candles out.' You end up trying to fix the same problem the same way, or the same problem crops up and you try another fix, but there's not a comprehensive fix. As a leadership team, you better be listening to the signals because otherwise here's the next airplane and the next new city and we're going to blow the same candles out again.

WSJ: The airline business has reinvigorated network carriers, discounters continue to grow, and new airlines like Skybus and Virgin America are coming along. How is JetBlue coping with intensifying domestic competition?

Mr. Barger: Our cost structure, while we can always hone it, is in very good position. Make sure we continue to keep the product fresh. Our ability to really compete on a cost and a product standpoint really positions us well for the future. You can't rest on your laurels when Consumer Reports comes out and says JetBlue is the top airline. We have a responsibility to make sure, if something's not performing, let's redeploy the airplanes.

WSJ: Wall Street says it loves the airline, hates the stock. What do you do about that?

Mr. Barger: Our mission is to really, with rigor, review what we're doing today. Let's manage the company: 128 airplanes, 54 cities, let's evaluate. However, are we deploying our newest asset, the [Embraer] 190? I think every airline would love to have a 100-seat airplane they could deploy across North America. Many of them can't. From a revenue perspective, there is plenty of running room for our brand, and not just in the domestic U.S. Let's look at Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean. I really believe the share price will take care of itself.

Sounds like he is not happy with deploying a/c on unprofitable routes. Wonder how those Shuttles are doing? Do you think maybe those a/c could pull a better yield elsewhere? Pittsburgh is a non performer. My guess is they are gone, along with quite a few other non performing cities. They need to build out the cities that are performing and close those that are not. More reason to reinstate the 190 deliveries and sell more 320s.

imp:​

I doubt that they will reduce the airbus fleet. Did you read the post, they want to deploy aircraft to Canada, Mexico, and the the west. The Boston shuttle is now mostly busses as far as I know. The embrear went into ORD and is now mostly, if not all busses. The idea is to pathfind with the Embrear and then move in with the bus if all goes well. If they deploy more Embrears and build up a market, they need the busses to move in. Thats the whole idea, fleet flexibility both ways. I think bus deliveries slow to a crawl while 190s stay at a normal rate. This way they can take busses off unprofitable routes and pit them on 190 routes that go well.

 

[a319stud]

Sonny Barger? Wasn't he the founder of the Hells Angels?

 

[Tomct]

Sonny Barger? Wasn't he the founder of the Hells Angels?

YEP!! He was also part of the brawl in Laughlin, NV., with the Mongols biker gang. :bomb:

 

[ultrarunner]

Looks like Jetblue may be closing some non performing cities and routes after the 60 day brainstorm session is over.

That should make shareholders and WS happy. If I was the former, I'd be OK with this. If a city doesn't perform, yank it.

 

[Bavarian Chef]

JetBlue looks for more support in Pittsburgh
Tuesday June 26, 2:39 pm ET

JetBlue Airways Corp.'s CEO urged members of Pittsburgh's business community Tuesday to support his low-cost airline's efforts to bring more competition to Pittsburgh International Airport.
In a Downtown breakfast appearance before members of the South Oakland-based Pittsburgh Technology Council, JetBlue CEO David Barger said his airline should be credited with lowering air fares from Pittsburgh to New York and Boston, the two markets the airline currently serves from Pittsburgh.
And he said his carrier should be supported accordingly here, but isn't.
Barger said the discount carrier is part of a trend away from the monopoly that Tempe, Ariz.-based US Airways held on the Pittsburgh market for many years; a dynamic which led to travelers from Pittsburgh paying higher fares on average than travelers departing from many other U.S. airports.
Barger said JetBlue's lower fares have helped increase the daily passenger traffic from Pittsburgh to New York from 496 passengers in 2005 to more than 1,020 today.
But Barger thinks his airline hasn't been given enough credit for the role it's played in lowering airfares here. He used JetBlue's New York share as an example.
"We think we should be seeing more than 36 percent of the traffic as a result of bringing in the lower fares," Barger said.
JetBlue and another low-cost carrier, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV - News), now handle approximately 16 percent of the traffic at PIA, according to Ken Zapinksi, a senior vice president with the Downtown-based Allegheny Conference on Community Development. JetBlue's share is only 1.7 percent, Zapinski said.
US Airways (NYSE:LCC - News), long the dominant carrier at PIA, still holds 43 percent of the market, according to Zapinski.
Another JetBlue executive said the company has no plans to pull out of the Pittsburgh market, however.
Bryan Baldwin, a New York-based spokesman for JetBlue (NASDAQ:JBLU - News), said the Pittsburgh market has taken longer to mature than company executives had hoped. But for now, the company wants to continue to do what it can to increase the airline's visibility here.
"Obviously we run a business, but we have never pulled out of a market like Pittsburgh," Baldwin said.
But Baldwin stressed that JetBlue executives are befuddled by their reception in Pittsburgh.
"It's a wonderful market on paper. But let's just make sure that people are flying it," Baldwin said.
Baldwin and Barger were in town Tuesday to help the airline celebrate its one-year anniversary serving PIA. Were JetBlue able to expand here, one of the best things it could do would be to add more service between PIA and West Coast destinations, according to Lucinda Harshman, director of air service development for the Allegheny County Airport Authority. Harshman said destinations such as Seattle, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco remain under served from PIA, with few direct flights.
"I think the West Coast is vital to us. US Airways has two flights per day to San Francisco and Los Angeles during the summer, and they go down to one a day during the winter months; and we have nothing going into San Diego and Seattle," Harshman said.
"I would like them (JetBlue) to expand each year in the Pittsburgh area," Harshman said.
Published June 26, 2007 by Pittsburgh Business Times


You sure about that lowecur? This sounds like a negotiation to me.

 

[Longhorn]

I doubt that they will reduce the airbus fleet. Did you read the post, they want to deploy aircraft to Canada, Mexico, and the the west. The Boston shuttle is now mostly busses as far as I know. The embrear went into ORD and is now mostly, if not all busses. The idea is to pathfind with the Embrear and then move in with the bus if all goes well. If they deploy more Embrears and build up a market, they need the busses to move in. Thats the whole idea, fleet flexibility both ways. I think bus deliveries slow to a crawl while 190s stay at a normal rate. This way they can take busses off unprofitable routes and pit them on 190 routes that go well.

First, the BOS shuttle is exactly half and half on 320's and 190's. Weekdays, 4 320's and 4 190's. Weekends, they add 1 190 to the schedule.

Second, ORD is at 3 320's and 2 190s per day to JFK, LGB is all 320's as of now.

You are correct on the idea of using the 320's and the 190's together to compliment each other. They work great together on everything except the trans-cons due to the range. The 190 has no problem with anything shorter than JFK-SLC/BOS-SLC. Anything longer than that, and you are stretching it. As for the 320's being reduced, I still think you will see a sale of around 5 this year, but no more than 8. I would not be surprised to see the 190 deliveries brought back to their original schedule with the reliability starting to hold near the 320's now.

 

[Mr Hat]

Thats funny....I was thinkin HA Sonny Barger too. Next time just call him Dave....Sonny Barger is someone TOTALLY different.