JetBlue pilots lose more domestic flying.

[johnsonrod]

In my opinion, JB has great feed (both JFK and BOS) and a great terminal in JFK - you have the pieces of the puzzle to have an international program. With your feed in the NE, certainly South America would be viable with A330s. I bet you could fill several A330s daily. Not sure about Europe just yet - I guess I would probably wait for Europe to improve financially (probably 3-5 years).

 

[Lake Alice]

Most of our pilots share the same sentiment. Unfortunately The powers that be do not and as long as we have a PVC that will continue to approve these code shares and alliances it will continue. Again, just business.

 

[curtaindriver]

Most of our pilots share the same sentiment. Unfortunately The powers that be do not and as long as we have a PVC that will continue to approve these code shares and alliances it will continue. Again, just business.

Lake, I love you bro..........but if you honestly believe a union would deter JetBlue from making these kind of business decisions then you have zero understanding of how a CBA works. We could definitely have restrictive scope, and language that drives some protections with regards to a codeshare.........but to zero them out and somehow force JB to buy its own widebodies is just plain dreaming. (excuse the pun, disregarding spelling)

Not to mention, you and I were hired on the same day..........and have witnessed how certain mistakes almost crippled this company. The 190 itself has caused huge headaches as this company continues to grow and mature. Having said that, I believe a wide-body would be a disaster right now. We DO NOT have the domestic feed to fill enough twin-aisle planes to make them viable..................if we did I truly believe JB would buy them. Do I think they are coming? Maybe........i really don't care. I just want this company to be profitable enough that when/if we can sit at the negotiating table we can achieve a contract that is representative of the hardwork of this pilot group. And provide the protections, ones that are actually achievable, we so richly desire and deserve.

CD

 

[Lake Alice]

I cannot disagree with anything you wrote except as long as we can continue alliances we won't order wide bodies. But we need a say. We're all logical enough to have it.
Now get back to work and go break down somewhere.

 

[curtaindriver]

I cannot disagree with anything you wrote except as long as we can continue alliances we won't order wide bodies. But we need a say. We're all logical enough to have it.
Now get back to work and go break down somewhere.

Haha!! no doubt

CD

 

[johnsonrod]

Lake, I love you bro..........but if you honestly believe a union would deter JetBlue from making these kind of business decisions then you have zero understanding of how a CBA works. We could definitely have restrictive scope, and language that drives some protections with regards to a codeshare.........but to zero them out and somehow force JB to buy its own widebodies is just plain dreaming. (excuse the pun, disregarding spelling)

Not to mention, you and I were hired on the same day..........and have witnessed how certain mistakes almost crippled this company. The 190 itself has caused huge headaches as this company continues to grow and mature. Having said that, I believe a wide-body would be a disaster right now. We DO NOT have the domestic feed to fill enough twin-aisle planes to make them viable..................if we did I truly believe JB would buy them. Do I think they are coming? Maybe........i really don't care. I just want this company to be profitable enough that when/if we can sit at the negotiating table we can achieve a contract that is representative of the hardwork of this pilot group. And provide the protections, ones that are actually achievable, we so richly desire and deserve.

CD

You know better than I do, but, given the quality of your economy product (comfy seats and good IFE) and the number of feeder flights into JFK, I'd be surprised if you couldn't fill a few A330s on flights to San Paulo, Rio, Buenos Aires and maybe 1-2 European markets - even in this recession. You have the quality product, you can adjust the pricing to fill the seats and cargo bins and you have good feed from 2nd and 3rd tier cities. I guess you would probably need something like 10 A330s to make them profitable - but perhaps you could get pilots cross-qualified on the A320s and A330s (i.e., like in Europe) to reduce some training costs.

Then again, what do I know............ I suppose marketing alliances with guaranteed allotments of seats to sell would be cheaper.......

 

[curtaindriver]

You know better than I do, but, given the quality of your economy product (comfy seats and good IFE) and the number of feeder flights into JFK, I'd be surprised if you couldn't fill a few A330s on flights to San Paulo, Rio, Buenos Aires and maybe 1-2 European markets - even in this recession. You have the quality product, you can adjust the pricing to fill the seats and cargo bins and you have good feed from 2nd and 3rd tier cities. I guess you would probably need something like 10 A330s to make them profitable - but perhaps you could get pilots cross-qualified on the A320s and A330s (i.e., like in Europe) to reduce some training costs.

Then again, what do I know............ I suppose marketing alliances with guaranteed allotments of seats to sell would be cheaper.......

I'm with you on the "what do I know", but I also think we could fill seats to certain markets. But, the problem with that is, what is the sustainability if the market turns south? A few of the reasons our numbers aren't like Alaska Airlines is we have high debt, and a significant number of our markets aren't mature. These are just a few of the reasons we carry so much cash.....1.2 billion represents over 20% of our 12 month trailing costs. Crunch the numbers compared to the other airlines, you'll see we carry a lot........which we all know cash does nothing for us. If we were to take on a fleet of wide-body aircraft, call it 10-15, any significant disruption for the airlines would cripple us.
Do I see someday JetBlue having wide-bodies? I do.......but not until we have over at least 250 aircraft total..( that number is my opinion based on things I've read and heard).
For the present, I hope we keep growing at our current rate......establish more business markets, and let these markets begin to mature............and keep paying down debt!!

CD