Insane Fare Sales - Bleed Baby Bleed

[storminpilot]

http://biz.yahoo.com/pz/040713/60688.html

Press ReleaseSource: JetBlue Airways Corporation



JetBlue Kicks Off One-Million-Seat Sale
Tuesday July 13, 7:30 am ET
Sale Fares Reduced by up to 50% from Regular Fares

NEW YORK, July 13, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- JetBlue Airways (NasdaqNM:JBLU - News) is kicking off Fall travel by putting one million seats on sale with fares up to 50% less than regular fares.

``This is our way of saying 'Thanks a million' to the 25 million customers we've served over the last four and a half years,'' said David Neeleman, JetBlue's Chairman and CEO. ``With one-way fares starting from $29* from Long Beach and $49* from New York, Washington, Boston and Florida, customers can really experience our gratitude throughout the Fall.''

JetBlue has never had lower fares between the northeast and Florida, starting from $49* one way from New York's John F. Kennedy to Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando, Tampa and West Palm Beach; from NY/LaGuardia*** and Washington/Dulles to Fort Lauderdale; and from Boston/Logan to Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando, and Tampa. Florida fares from Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, NY, and from Burlington, VT start at $59* one way.

Caribbean service from New York starts from just $69* one way, from JFK to San Juan and Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, and to Santiago and Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic. (Fares from the Dominican Republic start at $78* with the inclusion of value-added tax.)

Coast to coast fares start from $99* one way from JFK to California's LA/Long Beach, Oakland, Ontario, Sacramento, San Diego, and San Jose; from Washington/Dulles to Long Beach, Oakland and Sacramento; and from Boston/Logan to Long Beach and Oakland.

Sale fares between Long Beach and Las Vegas, NV start at $29* one way, between Long Beach and Oakland start at $39* one way and between Long Beach and Salt Lake City, UT from $59* one way.

JetBlue announced yesterday that it plans daily service between JFK and Phoenix, AZ starting October 1, 2004, which will also be offered on sale from $99* one way.

These sale fares, which require a 14-day advance purchase, must be bought at http://www.jetblue.com by July 29 for travel between September 7 and December 15, 2004. Sale fare travel is not permitted during blackout dates between November 23 and 29, 2004. Customers should book early as seats may not be available on all flights. For an additional $3 each way, the sale fares can also be booked by calling 1-800-JETBLUE.

JetBlue's Million Seat Sale Fares: New York/JFK to: Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando, Tampa, & West Palm Beach; New Orleans $49* San Juan & Aguadilla, Puerto Rico; Santiago & Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic $69* Denver $89* Las Vegas, Long Beach, Oakland, Ontario, Phoenix, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Jose & Seattle $99* New York/LGA*** to: Fort Lauderdale $49* Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse & Burlington to: Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, New Orleans, Orlando, Tampa, & West Palm Beach $59* Washington/Dulles to: Fort Lauderdale $49* Long Beach, Oakland & Sacramento $99* Boston/Logan to: Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Tampa & Orlando $49* Denver $89* Long Beach & Oakland $99* Fort Lauderdale to: New York, Boston and Washington $49* Long Beach $89* Fort Myers, Orlando, and Tampa to: New York & Boston $49* West Palm Beach to: New York $49* Denver to: New York & Boston $89* Long Beach to: Las Vegas $29* Oakland $39* Salt Lake City $59* Fort Lauderdale $89* New York, Washington & Boston $99* Oakland to: Long Beach $39* New York, Washington & Boston $99*

JetBlue is a low-fare, low-cost passenger airline, which provides high-quality customer service. JetBlue operates a fleet of 61 new Airbus A320 aircraft and plans to add another eight A320s to its fleet in 2004. The airline has 100 Embraer E190 aircraft on order with options for an additional 100 with deliveries scheduled to begin in August, 2005. All JetBlue aircraft feature roomy all-leather seats each equipped with free live satellite television, offering up to 24 channels of DIRECTV(r) programming at every seat.**

Based at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport, JetBlue currently operates 258 flights a day and serves 27 destinations in 11 states, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The airline plans daily service between New York's LaGuardia Airport and Fort Lauderdale, FL, starting September 17, 2004 and between JFK and Phoenix, AZ, starting October 1, 2004. With JetBlue, all seats are assigned, all travel is ticketless, all fares are one-way, and a Saturday night stay is never required. For more information, schedules and fares, please visit http://www.jetblue.com or call JetBlue reservations at 1-800-JETBLUE (538-2583), 1-888-538-2583 if calling from Puerto Rico, or 1-888-751-2241 if calling from the Dominican Republic. This press release, as well as past press releases, can be found on http://www.jetblue.com.

* Sale fare reflects $3 online discount only when booked at http://www.jetblue.com. Fares do not include Passenger Facility Charges of up to $9.00 each way, September 11th Security Fees of up to $5 each way and a Federal Segment Tax of $3.10 per segment. Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic fares do not include Passenger Facility Charges of up to $9 each way, U.S. Departure Tax of $13.70 each way and September 11th Security Fees of up to $5 each way. Dominican Republic fares also do not include U.S. APHIS and Immigration Fees of up to $10.10, Airport Authority and Infrastructure Fees of up to $22.45 each way and Airport Departure Tax of up to $20. All taxes and fees must be paid at the time of purchase. Passengers traveling to or from the Dominican Republic need to provide all necessary documents (e.g. valid passport, visa where applicable) at the time of departure. JetBlue reserves the right to deny boarding to passengers without the proper documentation.

** DIRECTV(r) service is not available on flights between New York City and Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic.

*** Service from New York's LaGuardia airport commences September 17, 2004.

This press release contains statements of a forward-looking nature which represent our management's beliefs and assumptions concerning future events. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions and are based on information currently available to us. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in the forward looking statements due to many factors, including without limitation, our extremely competitive industry, our ability to implement our growth strategy including the integration of the Embraer E190 aircraft into our operations, our significant fixed obligations and our reliance on high daily aircraft utilization, increases in maintenance costs, fuel prices and interest rates, our dependence on the New York market, seasonal fluctuations in our operating results, our reliance on sole suppliers, government regulation, the loss of key personnel and potential problems with our workforce, the potential liability associated with the handling of our customer data and future acts of terrorism or the threat of such acts or escalation of U.S. military involvement overseas. Additional information concerning these and other factors is contained in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to, the Company's 2003 Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release. The JetBlue logo is available at: http://media.primezone.com/prs/single/?pkgid=795

 

[Vladimir Lenin]

why don't they just give the seats away, that's a helluva promo

 

[chperplt]

Better call quickly before the 3 or 4 seats per flight the sale price covers are gone..

 

[storminpilot]

http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/040713/airlines_1.htmlReuters
US airlines slash fall fares early, worry Wall St.
Tuesday July 13, 1:01 pm ET
By Jui Chakravorty



NEW YORK, July 13 (Reuters) - U.S. airlines are cutting fall prices earlier than usual this year, launching a fare war that some Wall Street analysts say will squeeze profits more tightly at low-cost carriers than at their larger rivals.

JetBlue Airways Corp. (NasdaqNM:JBLU - News) on Tuesday said it will cut prices by as much as half on 1 million seats this fall, becoming the latest low-cost carrier to slash fares in recent days.

U.S. airline fare sales are common in the traditionally weak period between Labor Day and Thanksgiving. But the annual fare war generally starts later in the year, with the first shots fired by the major carriers.

"It's perfectly normal from a seasonal perspective to see discounted fares for fall travel offered in mid-summer," Sam Buttrick, analyst at UBS, said. "However, the levels are particularly low in markets where there have been significant capacity additions," he said, citing transcontinental markets and routes such as the Northeast to Florida and Dallas to the West coast.

DISCOUNTS TO HURT LCC'S

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV - News), AirTran Airways (NYSE:AAI - News) and ATA Holdings (NasdaqNM:ATAH - News) recently announced heavily discounted fares for fall flights, starting the early round of price cuts in an industry that has been struggling to keep profits alive.

Larger carriers, most of which are expected to post losses in the second quarter, have been forced to match the discounts to stay competitive.

But according to some analysts, the lower fares will hurt low-cost carriers more than the larger ones.

"The domestic revenue environment is going to be challenging this summer and into the fall, particularly for discount carriers," Buttrick said. "It will be a tough summer from unit revenue perspective for carriers such as America West (NYSE:AWA - News), AirTran and perhaps JetBlue."

Low-cost carriers benefited from capacity cutbacks by larger airlines after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and through the war on Iraq. But as the travel industry began to recover late last year, major airlines began restoring capacity.

"Capacity is back at the larger network airlines. There will be no revenue spill-over to the smaller airlines this year," Buttrick said. "There is too much capacity, much more than the demand."

TOUGH SKIES AHEAD FOR ALL

Dallas-based Southwest last week slashed prices by as much as 65 percent, offering $39 to $99 fares on late summer and early fall flights. AirTran also announced a 30 percent price cut on all its fares.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL - News), Continental Airlines (NYSE:CAL - News) and AMR Corp.'s (NYSE:AMR - News) American Airlines have already dropped fares to match Southwest's discounts.

Analysts said the discounted fares will have little effect on the major airlines, even though many are struggling, with United Airlines (OTC BB:UALAQ.OB - News) trying to emerge from bankruptcy and Delta trying to avoid it.

"The network airlines are desperately in need of more revenue. But it's not always clear that a fare hike produces that outcome," Buttrick said. Larger carriers also have the benefit of garnering a large chunk of their revenue from international operations, he said.

Airline stocks were off across the board in mid-day trading. JetBlue shares were down 3.4 percent at $25.79, AirTran shares were off 3.5 percent at $13, Delta shares were off 7.2 percent at $6.26, AMR Corp. shares were down 5.9 percent at $9.74 and Continental shares were off 2.6 percent, at $$9.78.

"We expect losses throughout the network carriers business, albeit with margins better than a year ago," Buttrick said. "And we expect profit in the discount carrier business, but with lower margins."

 

[rvsm410]

SAD, HERE'S YOUR RACE TO THE BOTTOM.....

 

[:-)]

SAD, HERE'S YOUR RACE TO THE BOTTOM.....

The "race to the bottom" is dictated by the publics unwillingness to buy tickets at anything less than a drastic discount. You can bet your sweet a$$ that NO company is selling for less just for the HE!! of it.

At least you people should learn to recognize market forces at work, geez.

Calvin

 

[rvsm410]

The "race to the bottom" is dictated by the publics unwillingness to buy tickets at anything less than a drastic discount. You can bet your sweet a$$ that NO company is selling for less just for the HE!! of it.

At least you people should learn to recognize market forces at work, geez.

Calvin

Good, another brilliant passenger steps up to the plate and stands his ground!! I'm sure you did the same thing at the gas pumps this summer as well, Parked the ol SUV and thats why your riding your bike to work....you da man!

Boy hope those children dont need new shoes when they go back to school....shoot, I forgot there will be a blue light special at K-mart....they be going after WalMart...

Anymore market pressure and they will be asking the passengers to do the flying as well, here's the keys...have a nice day!

 

[philo beddoe]

rvsm, who are you mad at, man?

Yes you are correct that people keep buying gas even though prices go up, but I guarantee if as went down to 99 cents a gallon, you might consider doing a little more driving than you woud if it was3 bucks a gallon.

Airline tickets are even more volatile a commodity. Some pople must travel no matter what. Some businesses are reluctant to spend a lot right now, so some trips are going to be skipped if they don't think there is an economic benefit.

If tickets were 25 bucks anywhere, we'd all be flying even more.

You and I might not like the fact that he is right, but market forces will dictate prices unless gov't controls (even worse option) are instituted.

The airlines would charge more if they could, believe me.

 

[N8Dogg]

Southwest and JetBlue slashing fares wouldn't have anything to do with the financial status of a couple of financially distressed legacy carriers, would it? Sounds suspicious to me. Capitalism at its best!!! Just my $0.02. Good luck to the guys and gals at UAL and USAir.

 

[:-)]

rvsm, who are you mad at, man?

I'll guess that he's mad at those evil Wepublican conservatives. If we'd just progress to Western European socialism ol' rvsm would probably get real happy.

Calvin

 

[:-)]

Good, another brilliant passenger steps up to the plate and stands his ground!!

Hey looky here. Did you boys read that? BRILLIANT, he said BRILLIANT. Finally Calvin gets the recognition he so deserves.

Hey rvsm, to bad you got the pax part wrong (why don't they have a "sticking your tongue out" smilie?)

I'm sure you did the same thing at the gas pumps this summer as well, Parked the ol SUV and thats why your riding your bike to work....you da man!

You're dang right. I parked the dually, drove the sports car and cancelled every unnecessary trip. A free market allows me the freedom to make that choice.

Boy hope those children dont need new shoes when they go back to school....shoot, I forgot there will be a blue light special at K-mart....they be going after WalMart...

K-Mart's already dead in my neck of the woods, the couldn't compete.

Anymore market pressure and they will be asking the passengers to do the flying as well, here's the keys...have a nice day!

If the Feds are willing to let the pax fly the planes, then it'll probably happen. And there ain't a DAM$%^@#^ thing we can do about it. Our best hope is for a economy that gets strong enough to support the amount of available seats.

I guess that you must have slept through econ at dispatchers school.

But, I bet that posting made you feel better and that's what counts.

Calvin

 

[Cactus73]

Low fares are not the fault of the passengers. They are just buying the lowest fares to go to the destinations they need to go.

These fare sales are the fault of airline managements adding capacity at unsustainable rates. Between jetBlue, Air Tran, Southwest, and soon to be Virgin USA, they are adding seats to the market at astonishing rates. My airline AWA is also guilty of this but to a lesser extent.

The LCC's have so many empty seats to fill this fall that they are starting the sales early out of fear of not filling them. jetBlue is going to completely dominate the NYC-Florida routes this fall, but they are going to hurt their own revenue margins by adding so much capacity.

The airlines will price their tickets to fill their planes.

Don't blame the customers.

 

[Dizel8]

Of course one cannot blame the customers, if I can get the quality for less, I will.

Is there a solution? If there is, I cannot see it, everyone is going for marketshare. If you can eke out a small profit, but deprive your competitor of a larger one, airline management will go for it. Heck, if you can take a smaller loss than your competetion, it is still good, or at least so it seems.
Sadly, this is nothing new, it happened right after dereg and until the economy turns around, it will continue to be so.

 

[vc10]

Southwest and JetBlue slashing fares wouldn't have anything to do with the financial status of a couple of financially distressed legacy carriers, would it? Sounds suspicious to me. Capitalism at its best!!! Just my $0.02. Good luck to the guys and gals at UAL and USAir.

Supply and demand, simple as that. Southwest, JetBlue, etc keep taking delivery of aircraft, so overall capacity keeps going up. Meanwhile the legacy majors increased utilization this year---more capacity. All that capacity has to be filled.

It's brutal and eventually someone will fall over, unless there's a pick up in demand or gas prices drop a whole lot.

 

[ThisistheDream]

Its not rocket science to see why airlines cant make money. Airfares today are cheaper then they where 20 years ago!!! Imagine that cheaper today than 20 years ago!! how much was gas per gallon 20 years ago? how much was minimum wage 20 years ago. Everything we buy has gone up in the that last 20 years. Wages, pensions, benefits have gone up for the airlines but there cost to fly is lower? do the math, its means you lose moeny and alot as we have all seen and heard. All these low cost carries seem to make money now but they whay things are going now racing to the cheapest airfare, in 5 years there will be 5 new low cost carriers that will hurt jetBlue aitran etc. Anyone else feel that airfares are too cheap? 99 dollars to fly coast to coast? are you kidding to drive that it would cost 300-400 dollars in gas alone!!!!

 

[Publishers]

Graphic Designers

You all seem to think you are alone at this.

Throughout history, there have been shortages of people skills followed by more being attracted to the field, followed by a general reduction in the job value. Graphicd designers came to mind as one where early on it seemed you could not find a good one until now they are everywhere and paying considerably less.

As to travel, it is for the most part discretionary. You may have to buy the gas to get to work, that does not mean you take the big long vacation trip. There have been fare wars before and will be again.

Lastly, the public does not look for maturity or select the cabin crew. They look to the government to regulate the people qualified to fly. The whole concept of paying by the seats in the aircraft and seniority is opposite to what the average person would think.

One interesting thing about aviation is that you get some of your most challenging flying early in your career when you do not have ten jet engines and four transponders with sixteen different systems and a seat in air conditioned comfort and an auto pilot system more expensive than the aircraft you started in.

 

[canyonblue]

BWI to LAX in a car is 2659.90 miles. The drive would be 40 hours, 13 minutes. At 25 MPG that would be 106.396 gallons of gas. At $1.93 per gallon that would be $205.34 or $410.68 roundtrip. The current best fares in that market are....

Roundtrip BWI-LAX (inc taxes, sec fees)

Southwest Airlines $198.20
America West $209.40
United Airlines $211.90
Delta Airlines $211.90
American Airlines $214.40
Continental Airlines $214.40
US Airways $214.40

These were quick look up fares, and Southwest has the best search engine to find the lowest fares, so some fares may be cheaper. Also Southwest was the only nonstop.

 

[exphojump]

Flying is cheaper than driving on anything over 500nm. AAA estimates a midsize vehicle costs .51/sm or .59/nm even with four people in the vehicle the CASM is still .15/nm or double what LUV's CASM is .076/nm with an average stage length of 730nm.

What LUV is charging on BWI-LAX is at a loss.

I assume each way was $89.00 plus tax.

BWI-LAX 2023nm or revenue of .044/nm

LUV's 2003 operating revunue/ASM .0827/nm.

So for each ticket they sell at $89.00 one way the must sell another ticket for $246.00 one way.

At best LUV's costs are between .05 and .06/nm on a 2000nm trip.

Let the LCC fare wars begin!

 

[jobear]

Its not rocket science to see why airlines cant make money. Airfares today are cheaper then they where 20 years ago!!! Imagine that cheaper today than 20 years ago!! how much was gas per gallon 20 years ago?

Oil Prices:

Average​

(in $/bbl.)​

Year​

Nominal​

Inflation Adjusted​

1949

2.54​

18.28
​

1950

2.51​

17.84
​

1951

2.53​

16.67
​

1952

2.53​

16.36
​

1953

2.68​

17.20
​

1954

2.78​

17.71
​

1955

2.77​

17.71
​

1956

2.79​

17.57
​

1957

3.09​

18.84
​

1958

3.01​

17.84
​

1959

2.90​

17.07
​

1960

2.88​

16.67
​

1961

2.89​

16.56
​

1962

2.90​

16.45
​

1963

2.89​

16.18
​

1964

2.88​

15.92
​

1965

2.86​

15.56
​

1966

2.88​

15.23
​

1967

2.92​

14.98
​

1968

2.94​

14.47
​

1969

3.09​

14.42
​

1970

3.18​

14.04
​

1971

3.39​

14.34
​

1972

3.39​

13.89
​

1973

3.89​

15.01
​

1974

6.87​

23.87
​

1975

7.67​

24.42
​

1976

8.19​

24.66
​

1977

8.57​

24.23
​

1978

9.00​

23.65
​

1979

12.64​

29.83
​

1980

21.59​

44.89
​

1981

31.77​

59.88
​

1982

28.52​

50.63
​

1983

26.19​

45.05
​

1984

25.88​

42.67
​

1985

24.09​

38.36
​

1986

12.51​

19.56
​

1987

15.40​

23.23
​

1988

12.58​

18.22
​

1989

15.86​

21.91
​

1990

20.03​

26.26
​

1991

16.54​

20.81
​

1992

15.99​

19.53
​

1993

14.25​

16.90
​

1994

13.19​

15.25
​

1995

14.62​

16.44
​

1996

18.46​

20.26
​

1997

17.23​

18.44
​

1998

10.87​

11.46
​

1999

15.56​

16.08
​

2000

26.72​

26.72
​

2001

21.84​

21.16
​

2002

22.51​

21.51
​

2003

27.54​

25.70
​

2004 partial

36.47​

33.24
​

Source US DOE/ www.economagic.com​

Jobear

 

[jobear]

Sorry for the above post but this new board is a flamin pain in the but.

What I had was a nice easy to read chart on oil prices from 1949 to present plus a link to an inflation calculator.
In 2003 dollars a 225.00 ticket would have cost 54.00 in 1973 and 125.00 in 1983 dollars. So much for the last 30years of economic growth. I'm still searching for a site that has historical airline ticket prices.

Jobear
Fearing the future.............

 

[canyonblue]

I too would like to see ticket prices go up so the industry can survive. But as far as comparing 1970's ticket prices to 2004, that debate would not ensure our job security any better. Assuming a ticket price from LAX-BWI was $500 round trip in 1975, and with inflation that same ticket would now cost say $1978.65 round trip (using an inflation calculator), it is easy to see that many of the families that fly today could not afford to do so and then would create a smaller need for ASM's which would in turn create a smaller need for us, the pilots. Most of us on this board wouldn't even be close to flying for an airline.

 

[ThisistheDream]

I dont think the airfares should be 4 times what they where 20- 25 years ago just more, a little more. A round trip ticket coast to coast for 325-350 is a great deal!! but we have airlines trying to get what they call market share so they sell tickets for 200 RT. When people fly they look for the cheapest deal which we all do rather buying a car or an airline ticket. What is market share when you really think about it? passsengers we know for the most part look for the cheapest flight on the day and times they want to travel, and when they find that airline thats how they the passengers pick thier market share. someone who flies jetblue 5 times in a row and likes them alot will fly Delta the next time if they find a cheaper fare!!!! Market share basically is what is the cheapest airline to fly on the day the passenger travels. jetblue will sell tickets for 50% off, pasengers will be like this is great I love jetblue take the gift and next time they fly they will look for the cheapest fare and if its on American they will fly american while turning thier back on jetblue who gave them such a great deal last time for 50% off. I dont think passengers really have much loyalty or really care what airline they fly on they just want to get for the cheapest.

 

[philo beddoe]

Deregulation and the increase in regional carriers created the excess capacity and all the pilot job growth.

We could easily return to the good old dayys if we totally re-regulate, get rid of the lcc's and let uncle sam set the prices.

Pilots would again make huge $$.

Most of us would no longer be pilots.

The big question is whether YOU are willing to be the one who leaves flying so that someone ELSE can get a raise.

I'm not willing to be that guy. Yet.

 

[:-)]

Deregulation and the increase in regional carriers created the excess capacity and all the pilot job growth.

We could easily return to the good old dayys if we totally re-regulate, get rid of the lcc's and let uncle sam set the prices.

Pilots would again make huge $$.

Most of us would no longer be pilots.

The big question is whether YOU are willing to be the one who leaves flying so that someone ELSE can get a raise.

I'm not willing to be that guy. Yet.

Is anybody listening? If so, you just read truth.

Calvin