JetBlue & St Louis

[Samfox137]

Any JetBlue folks have any insight into the rumored expansion into STL? Did ORD take STL off the table for now? There was old rumor concerning six new "Saint" destinations to be announced on All Saints Day... I am a STL guy waiting for an Airbus class...was hoping for some better commuting options!

 

[glasspilot1]

Any JetBlue folks have any insight into the rumored expansion into STL? Did ORD take STL off the table for now? There was old rumor concerning six new "Saint" destinations to be announced on All Saints Day... I am a STL guy waiting for an Airbus class...was hoping for some better commuting options!

A lot of us old TWA guys in STL like this rumor. Ever since AA shrunk us down to a RJ base us commuters have been scraping and clawing to get to work, watching as our commuter RJ leaves with empty seats.

 

[Acefaser]

Gates were too expensive. This is what I heard. Maybe later next year?

 

[Dave's kid]

I heard they are looking at Mid-America Airport because Lambert is charging too much.

 

[MD80DRVR]

We're going to wait until Airtran announces STL-BOS service and then we'll knee-jerk into STL.

 

[zkmayo]

I was in one of our sessions about 10 days ago where DN said that jb would love to go to STL but that they couldnt come to terms with the airport folks. He also said one of jb's bod members is the owner of the stl blues and is leaning hard on the mayor and all the other parties to come to favorable terms. He said jb wants to go in there and just about any other place with more than 1mil people in it in the midwest.

DN also laughed about the All Saints Day rumor. although i think jb will eventually be in all of the saints mentioned. i would look for st.thomas and st.martin next year as well as STL.

 

[SDF2BUF2MCO]

I was in one of our sessions about 10 days ago where DN said that jb would love to go to STL but that they couldnt come to terms with the airport folks. He also said one of jb's bod members is the owner of the stl blues and is leaning hard on the mayor and all the other parties to come to favorable terms. He said jb wants to go in there and just about any other place with more than 1mil people in it in the midwest.

I guess empty gates at STL are better for the city than full gates. Maybe they're too expensive because STL is such a nice airport . Maybe AA still paying for them (joking somewhat). If the city is indeed playing hardball (who knows maybe JB wants to pay under market) you have to scratch your head and wonder why. Maybe they can justify the 3rd E/W runway.

 

[TV9Driver]

st. louis airport will always be a complete mess until we can wrestle control away from the city of st. louis and put in a regional authority to run the airport. gate fees are some of the highest in the nation and the services and ammenities are some of the worst. why would anyone want to come here?

i'm not slammin st. louis - i live here and commute out of here, but geez it's frustrating watching this perpetual trainwreck.

i just commuted home yesterday and was talking to a passenger who said he paid $1,700 dollars for a round trip ticket to ATL on a RJ. I about peed myself. We definitely need AirTran and JetBlue in here (preferably AirTran since I work there).

The rumor is always there that AirTran and JetBlue are coming, but I always here the same thing - "'it's too expensive"

 

[lowecur]

I was in one of our sessions about 10 days ago where DN said that jb would love to go to STL but that they couldnt come to terms with the airport folks. He also said one of jb's bod members is the owner of the stl blues and is leaning hard on the mayor and all the other parties to come to favorable terms. He said jb wants to go in there and just about any other place with more than 1mil people in it in the midwest.

I think the rate structure is probably agreeable to Jetblue. My guess is the hangup could possibly be the guaranteed revenue stream required to pay the bonds that could fall back on Jetblue and other tenants if either AA or WN decides to pull up stakes. Jetblue probably wants a cap for the gates they use.

If I were them I would look strongly at MCI for the time being. I believe they could secure 5-7 gates for their 190 program. Mid-America and Gary would require serious buildouts, and I don't believe Jetblue would commit to a long term lease at either of those places until they start making some serious money.

imp:​

 

[TV9Driver]

i still think Mid America is about 10 years away from being useful. It's still too far away from everyone. Most St. Louisans live west of downtown, so they aren't willing to drive through downtown and then another 30 minutes to go to the airport. The Illinois suburbs are growing fast, but like I said, it will probably be another 10 years until there is enough population to make it successful.

 

[Charlie Brown]

If I were them I would look strongly at MCI for the time being.

I hope you are right. I asked this very question last week at my interview, and was told MCI is "on the radar". Hopefully it is sooner rather than later. The one thing about MCI is there are a lot of O&Ds, but Midwest and SWA have a pretty good hold on those markets. Gates here are cheap, and plentiful. Plus, it is exactly half-way across the country. A good place to "connect the dots".

 

[Bavarian Chef]

I was told that we even went as far as hiring a stl station manager back in the late summer. Who knows. My bet is stl didn't come to terms with d and d.

 

[AKAAB]

SPOILER ALERT - Don't read this if you don't want to see the All Saints rumor killed or if you actually think JB management would ignore SEC rules and give the pilots any kind of hint like this:

I was in the recurrent class when Scott Green and Dave Bushy were speaking about possible new bluecities for the rest of the year. Bushy was saying that they had just been given a list of twelve possible new cities for Flight Ops to review when Scott quipped, "it's funny - four of them have Saint in the name." Thus, the All Saints Cities or All Saints Day rumor was spawned and spread in a matter of days. People were actually angry when the next announcement wasn't a "Saint" city.

Friends, I was there and they never said anything about the next four (or six, take your pick) cities going to be, in any way, tied together with "Saint" in the name.

Now, can someone tell my why the smoke monster killed Eko?