Jetblue Loses 42.4 Mil

[Hvy]

You got Southwest Airlines in SAT! Anywhere you want to go, baby!!

Really? Great...what is the fare from San Fran to Hong Kong? I would like to fly SWA there next month.

 

[SWA/FO]

Really? Great...what is the fare from San Fran to Hong Kong? I would like to fly SWA there next month.

You guys are funny. Thats what the legacy carriers are for. If we did it, it would be $59.00 each way before taxes. Yes, we would make money on that route.

 

[Occam's Razor]

Dogpile!

It's not right to kick a man when he's down, but it's often entertaining.

Those JetBlue guys who were kicking the legacy drivers ("dinosaurs!", they cried) are learning the inexorable truth of the proverb, "The sun don't shine on the same dog all the time."

Just last year I tolerated a JetBlue jumpseater on my aircraft that used a "Rules of the Old West" analogy on me. He explained that the legacy carriers (yes, I was flying him home in the jumpseat of my legacy aircraft) were like lame horses. You couldn't save 'em...so they should be shot...put out of their misery. That way their pilots could start looking for a new horse.

I wonder if he's got his Winchester out?

If nothing else, this thread has yielded one of the all-time greatest quotes in aviation history:

"Then competition ensured we couldn't raise fares fast enough to keep up."

 

[81Horse]

He explained that the legacy carriers (yes, I was flying him home in the jumpseat of my legacy aircraft) were like lame horses. You couldn't save 'em...so they should be shot...put out of their misery. That way their pilots could start looking for a new horse.

And they wonder why they get turned down for the occasional jumpseat?

 

[Vladimir Lenin]

stick a fork in 'em, they're done :crying:

 

[Blue Dude]

I think it is under hypocrisy as well.

Thick with irony? Oh, yeah. But hypocrisy, no. I am well aware that having an LCC unable to raise fares fast enough to cover rapidly rising costs is a real chuckler on this board. But it's not hypocritical to name competition as the culprit.

LCC's almost by definition charge fares less than the competition, but above their own costs. That is how competition is supposed to work. What is hypocritical is other carriers charging fares far below their own costs to crush another carrier, then complaining that their revenues are off. JetBlue has not done this, indeed has gone along with just about every fare increase offered. But costs beyond their control zoomed beyond all forecasts and they couldn't raise fares fast enough to keep pace. That's nobody's "fault", since it's easier to cut fares than raise them (thanks, NWA!). And yeah, it makes for one of FI.com's better sound bites. You're welcome.

 

[Blue Dude]

Just last year I tolerated a JetBlue jumpseater on my aircraft that used a "Rules of the Old West" analogy on me. He explained that the legacy carriers (yes, I was flying him home in the jumpseat of my legacy aircraft) were like lame horses. You couldn't save 'em...so they should be shot...put out of their misery. That way their pilots could start looking for a new horse.

I wouldn't have put up with it. Kick his arrogant a$$ off. If you see him again, give him a good kick in the shins for all the rest of us who are ashamed of this kind of thing. Then make him take the next flight. Thanks.

 

[Occam's Razor]

Quote:
o.k. how about Madrid, Spain??

That what the legacy airlines are for!! Last time I check JB doesn't go there either.

Um...Ok. How about Minneapolis? Does SWA fly to MSP?

 

[AKAAB]

In your dreams!

"For the full year 2005, net loss totaled $20.3 million, or a $0.13 loss per share."

"For the full year 2005, operating income was $47.6 million, resulting in an operating margin of 2.8%. Excluding the impact of the unusual items, operating margin for the full year 2005 would have been 3.6%."

"For the full year, operating revenues totaled $1.70 billion, representing growth of 34.5% over operating revenues of $1.26 billion for the full year 2004."

Take your shots at JetBlue while you can. Profit sharing will be back soon enough. In the mean time consider we brought in $1.7 billion in revenue, my paycheck never bounced, and my pension is intact (401k).

Management recognizes we need to make some changes to the model to return to profitability. Those changes are already being implemented; unlike other carriers that just stay the course hoping for a sudden windfall to solve all of the problems.

 

[Andy]

Just last year I tolerated a JetBlue jumpseater on my aircraft that used a "Rules of the Old West" analogy on me. He explained that the legacy carriers (yes, I was flying him home in the jumpseat of my legacy aircraft) were like lame horses. You couldn't save 'em...so they should be shot...put out of their misery. That way their pilots could start looking for a new horse.

The 5% rule is alive and well at every airline.
I guess this guy didn't understand how airline payscales work. With a startup, everyone's on year one pay. As your workforce gains years of seniority, your percentage of labor costs increases. All other things constant, JetBlue's labor costs will continue to be an increasing percentage of CASM. Just like the legacies. Imagine the salary costs at old USAirways in the late 90s when they hadn't hired pilots for almost a decade.

Anyway, I think now that FLYI is out of the picture, JBLU's yields (especially east coast) should show a marked improvement. FLYI's fares were ludicrously low.