Have your cake... AA and ORD

[BLUE BAYOU]

Remember when American Airlines threatened to sue the city of Long Beach, CA, when they couldn't obtain any additional landing slots (LGB is restricted to 41 air carrier operations due to noise)? Jetblue had paid for all remaining 27 slots and had an agreement with the city to have them all utilized by May 2003. Since many of the slots JB obtained weren't being used, AA squawked... and eventually, JB saved the city some heartache and gave AA 4 of their unused slots. Well, now JB would like to start up service in Chicago (ORD) and according to the 21 Nov Chicago Tribune, none of the airlines there (AA included) wants to give up one of their gates for JB. Despite the fact that many of the 179 gates at ORD are underutilized, the majors see this as one of their last strongholds-- Spirit is currently the only LCC there, all the others operate out of MDW. One method the paper mentions to free up some gates is tying the runway/expansion plans to some gate releases; some airlines have leases on their gates until 2018!

 

[General Lee]

Blue Bayou,

Well, I personally think it is a good thing that Southwest is at Midway because of the delays associated with ORD. Look what happened with you guys at SFO---the delays screwed up your 15 min turn times. Delta flies into MDW and ORD, and the delays at ORD can be a lot longer-----with 30 or more airplanes ahead of you for takeoff. But, you are right about American and the Long Beach deal. My brother just flew Jetblue into LGB from IAD, and he said he watched an American 757 disembark at LGB after it arrived from JFK, and it had less than 20 people on it. I think they just wanted to have the slots to block Jetblue from owning them all----but in some ways that is good. When there is aslot controlled airport with only 41 daily slots, you have to have some competition. If Jetblue had those extra four slots, the only other competition on the field would be the 4-5 slots held by America West and the 4 slots held by AA to DFW. Even ORD has more chances of competition than that. America West goes to ORD, and I believe that is a LCC. National went there until it's eventual demise. I think Jetblue needs to lobby the Long Beach City Council for more slots out of LGB, and that is the real problem here. Aren't those gates and slots used by National at ORD available? Also, with the slashing of schedules by the majors, there should be some slots open at ORD, and i am sure the ORD airport authority wouldn't mind taking Jetblue's money for landing fees etc. Face it, LGB just can't be a large hub for Jetblue because of the limited slots, and that isn't American's fault, it is the Long Beach City Council's fault.

Bye Bye----General Lee

 

[Draginass]

Imagine that . . . . . AA and UAL won't accomodate Jet Blue. It's shocking that AA and UAL won't give JetBlue what they want considering all Jet Blue has done for them . . . . NOT.