Jet Blue Productivity Advantage

[usna91]

JB

To all of you fortunate enough to have a job at JetBlue congratulations. It seems like a great company to work for. Many of us are envious and would love to be in your shoes. It's a great service you provide too and the customers are happy. Customer service attitude can't be underestimated and it'll continue to help you build market share and strength.

The market cap of Jet Blue is roughly equivalent to Delta. That is just what it is. Doesn't mean the market knows anything about either company because...well look at the last three years of stock market performance and you'll see the market doesn't really know.

As JB matures, costs will go up. Maintenance costs will increase. Labor will have a big spike because employees will have been around a while. The sweet deal lease David worked is keeping costs down now...what will the 320s cost in 3-5 years?

I hope this goes great for all of you...just don't know if Mr. Market knows the negatives (probably does as the chart is not pretty). It's nice to have an airiline out there that believes treating customers with respect and being passionate about loving your job is part of the company culture and not just lip service.

More than "cost advantages" I think that is why JBLU will flourish in these times. You need to be efficient and contain costs, but company culture is what will keep loyalty where it needs to be and this is an intangible that JBLU will take to the bank.

 

[pilotyip]

More productivty stuff

United flies there A-320's about 10 hrs a day, USAirways about 9 hrs a day, and JB about over 13 hours per day. United and JB have almost the same average stage length. JB get a free stage ever day over United and does it with half of the crew ratio per airplane. United has to fly their airplanes more hours, with about 25%-30% fewer crews to match the productivty of the LLC's Major changes in work rules, will it happen?

 

[G100driver]

JB guys, please help me out. I can see what a first year F/O makes on their web page. But what can one expect as a captain.

thanks

 

[HA25]

How does United address crew cost per hour on the A-320 $916/hr? How does USAirways do it at $1,063/hr Jet Blue $409 per hour. How can you make money flying against someone with that cost adavantage? Jet Blue guys take home great money they are not in proverty by any means. But they do fly alot of hard block hours to make their paycheck. The United crew works an average of 427 block hours per year and gets paid an average of over 900. Did management elect to make the airline unproductive?, did the pilot group ask for this in bargining?

wait till JB has to start maintaining those busses, right now they just do light maintenance.... soon they'll have to ramp up a maintenance hub to support that fleet..... JB will just be a smaller SWA and nothing more.

When this economy returns, so will AMR, DAL, UAL...et al.

 

[AlbieF15]

Lets see...

SWA....$15.50 Mk cap 11.8 billion

DAL.....$12.25 1.5 billion

AMR......$7.57 1.18 billion

UAL.......$1.97 129 MILLION

JetBlue$ 26.32 1.16 billion

VT....by my math, being "just another SWA" is exactly what I would be wanting. Even at only 30% of the size of SWA, the market cap (even assuming the multiple deflates somewhat) would be much higher than the majors.

I was concerned if I joined JB I might get bought out and "stapled" to the bottom of someone elses seniority. Looks like I may have had the equation backwards.

Also....it might be cheaper in the long term to sell off old airbuses and get new ones to minimize mx costs. Accepting higher initial costs to control unsheduled mx expenses is exactly what lot of American consumers do when they trade in 5-6 year old cars on newer models. I'm not sure that would work here, but again...I doubt the airbus will be eating anyones cost in mx down the road. If its too high....write it off and get new ones.

Must....get...off...computer....and....go...to...real...work......(I can quit whenever I want...really!)

 

[Midnight Mike]

Jetblue is competive not because of the salaries, but because of the work rules, the same is true for Southwest.

At Southwest the pilots fly 80 hours & are paid for 80 hours.
At United the pilot fly 80 hours & are paid for 50 hours.

Southwest has been turning a profit for the past 25 years, I would think after 25 years, they should have senior pilots flying by now???

If Jetblue keeps paying an honest wage for a honest days work, keeps the union out, they should be able to maintain the cost advantage for years to come.

MIKE

 

[jointops]

G100,

I think a search on this site will give you additional pay info on the going salaries.

1st year Captain is $110 an hour for the first 70 hours. Anything over 70 hours is at time and a half (same policy for F/Os, F/As).

Our upgrades are running anywhere from 10 months to a year. I started in March and 4 guys from my class made it to the Dec upgrade. I missed Dec upgrade by 6 people. I missed Jan upgrade by 35. So you can see it's all timing.

Happy landings,

 

[JayDub]

United has to fly their airplanes more hours, with about 25%-30% fewer crews to match the productivty of the LLC's

The last I knew JB's target was 14 crew members per airplane. American Airlines has 11 per Super 80 in JFK (and would assume every where else). The red eyes really eat up crews.\

United flies there A-320's about 10 hrs a day, USAirways about 9 hrs a day, and JB about over 13 hours per day.

wait till JB has to start maintaining those busses, right now they just do light maintenance.... soon they'll have to ramp up a maintenance hub to support that fleet

So with this amount of utilization, you don't think we've needed a single C-check? Never had an engine change? We have three maintence hubs, and are working on building a hanger for heavy MX at JFK.

Only time will tell. However, from my perspective, I get treated better, with more respect, and more like a real person in a flight department with 511 pilots, than I ever did in a flight department with six pilots. That's what will keep this company strong and profitable for years to come.

Respectfully,

JayDub

 

[Seeniner]

Curious:
How much would a year one or two UAL A-320 capt make, if that were ever possible?

How much of a raise does a JetBlue pilot get each year? What will a 12 year JB capt make?

How often do 2 captains fly together on JB? It sounds like there are a lot of captains there.


Does anyone really thing JB "created a low fare customer base"? Of course these customer were "stolen", whether from other airlines, buses, or personal vehicle. It sounds like there are many business travelers on JB, they didn't just magically appear, they don't fly on another airline anymore. Any data on how far the average JB customer drives to the airport?

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have a flying job right now.

See

 

[Andy Neill]

On date of signing for their current contract, I'm showing $193.73 and $195.34 for a 1st and 2nd yr captain on the A319/320 at United. After all the concessions that may or may not have taken place since then, who knows?