JetBlue to land in ATL

[SUPREME NTM]

To all the gloating JB drivers out there.( You know who you are !)
[I have a lot of buddies flying for JB and they are happy with what they got and know that they are the lucky ones.]
Remember NOTHING IS GUARANTEED.
Better take a chill pill. Because nobody saw this mess coming. And it happened to a lot of us. You are not immune.
Being myself heading the furlough road, I am happy you are doing good. But this crazy industry kinda shifts rapidly.
Things happen fast and it is a pretty crappy thing to go thru.
I don't wish that on anybody out there. Not even You.
Count your blessings, Yes. But do not rejoyce on someone else's misery. You could have been it.
Or maybe you have another problem ??
Later BlueBoys

 

[FlyDeltasJets]

Bottom line: It's a new day. The dinosaurs like U, UAL, AMR, DAL, etc. are on the losing side of history - they had a great run and were something to behold in their heydey, but the future belongs to the likes of SWA, JBLU, AirTran, Frontier, etc. Can't happen you say? Well I'm sure when the mighty T. Rex and his kin saw the first little mammals scurring around the underbrush they chuckled and said "Those little rodents will someday replace us - us, in all our majesty? You gotta be kidding - it'll never happen!" LOL

You know, Kathy Lee Gifford did well for a while by undercutting wages at her sweatsho...I mean factories, but at least she had the decency and the brains not to gloat about it.

When employee salaries and wages make up only 1.87 cents per ASM, it is not hard to see why you are making progress against airlines whose employee costs are about 4.2 cents per ASM. Lower wages and benefits are the majority of your cost savings, and to assume otherwise is to ignore reality.

There is no "secret" to the success of the lcc's. It is simple. It is not cheaper airplanes, good customer service, tv's, innovation, etc. All those things certainly help, and I commend you for them. However, LCC's are successful because they are able to offer seats at fares that they can make money on but the competition can't. They can do this PRIMARILY because their employee wages and benefits are far lower. If you disagree with me, I challenge you to provide a more significant cost savings. I invite you to visit each airline's investor relations page for the SEC reports. A breakdown of costs can be found there.

I commend jetblue on their success, and I wish their employees the best. You do a fine job. However, you cannot pretend that you are not putting downward pressure on the compensation packages for this profession. It is not something to gloat about, and I hope that my airline does everything we can to curb your growth.

 

[JayDub]

Jay Dub / Kid

As "one of those boys at DAL," I'm not ready to write our epitaph just yet. I hear a lot of SWA, Air Tran and JB guys pounding their chests and announcing a new day in commercial aviation. Maybe so.....but it's far too early to tell. Remember, just two years ago most of you were trying to position for interviews at AA, UAL and DAL. Times have changed, and dramatically so, but the next several years will actually tell the tale. And again, my mantra on this board has always been that we all lose when companies make concessions, declare bankruptcy, etc. It just lowers the bar for pay, benefits, and retirement. The industry standard means more work, less pay. Let's keep our eye on the ball here. What short term success some may be having is coming at the expense of others, and was only earned through the sweat and tears of our brothers before us. If UAL, AA and DAL fail, it will be a new day in commercial aviation, and we'll all be worse off!!!

UUUHHH, I thought that's exactly what I said.

they have pulled out of atleast one of these routes they were going to "teach" us on. It could easily go the other way, at any given time in this business environment.

It is way early in this game to make any wide-sweeping statements. Let's all try to focus on the customer, and worry where the cards will fall then. Othwerwise, we are all in danger of taking our eye off the ball.

JayDub

 

[NYRANGERS]

Jaydub is right. It's only 3 flights for God's sake. They have to counter some how, after all we are putting 36 planes with the potential of 50 into their hub this year!

 

[rapidD]

Jaydub

You're right. I was just agreeing with you. To all of the newbee guys and gals at JB, SWA, Air Tran or wherever, though, who insist on gloating and neysaying all the rest of us....act like you've been here before. When you score your first TD, just give the ball back to the ref.

 

[Midnight Mike]

Hey all of you Jetblue guys, maybe you deserve to gloat, just a little, afterall it was not that long ago when everybody was writing Jetblue off. I remember the comments of Jetblue going belly up in "6" months, "1" year, and now look at you guys.

When Jetblue decided to lease all the slots at Long Beach, the papers had a good laugh, & tons of airline vets were predicting your demise. Now everybody wants a piece of Long Beach, that is after they gave it up.

You have a nice product, keep up the good work, just tone it down a little bit, some people are a little sensitive *Wink* *Wink*.

A buddy of mine rode Jetblue & he said that the ride was great, friendly people was what he kept talking about.

 

[Jeff G]

Jaydub is right. It's only 3 flights for God's sake. They have to counter some how, after all we are putting 36 planes with the potential of 50 into their hub this year!

Well, sorta. I thought those 36 were mostly upgraded replacements for current DLX service, and some of that service is going to be in markets that JetBlue doesn't serve. I'm not sure it's that big of a blitz. Probably got their attention, though.

But, yeah, you're right, it is only 3 flights, and I suppose ATL was just riper for cherry-picking than other cities. Maybe it's retaliation and maybe it's not (David N. says it isn't), but the timing sure is peculiar.

BTW, this appears to round out the LGB slot roster, creating a full slate just in time for the two year deadline.

23 total flights (as of the end of May):
OAK - 7
LAS - 2
JFK - 6
IAD - 3
ATL - 3
FLL - 1
SLC - 1

One of the OAK flights goes away in June, replaced with another JFK. And one of those 23 slots goes to Alaska if they want to claim it. My guess is that LAS might be entirely eliminated from LGB at that point.

This also seems to validate the strategy of temporarily using slots on short hauls until replacement with more lucrative longer hauls, despite "common sense" to the contrary. The last I heard, JetBlue was doomed if they did this.

 

[CatYaaak]

Jay Dub / Kid
Let's keep our eye on the ball here. What short term success some may be having is coming at the expense of others, and was only earned through the sweat and tears of our brothers before us. If UAL, AA and DAL fail, it will be a new day in commercial aviation, and we'll all be worse off!!!

This I don't understand. JetBlue is a new airline, and the pilots currently working there are it's first crop...there are no "brothers before them", and they are the first making the sweat-payments on the ground floor.

If UAL, AA, and DAL fail, it's because they couldn't serve the marketplace as well as others. Employees can be just as guilty as management for failing to see the changing realities of what that marketplace demands, and pilots managing a company's business affairs has as much chance for success as magagers flying airplanes. JetBlue mngmt and employees seem to have struck a chord of agreement as to what their priorities should be, and aren't locked into veiwpoints held-over from the days preceding deregulation.

It's working because they are all working for the success of the company, and you can't fault or try and lay a guilt-trip on them for that. There are winners and losers in any competition. Remember when Wang was a big name in the computer business?

 

[corky]

Is LGB a JB domicile?

 

[JayDub]

Well said CatYaaak. Golf Clap.

RapidD, I kind of wish handing the ball back to the ref was a little more prevelant on these boards from all parties, but so be it.

JeffG, As always, I think you are onto something here. This was all a business move. Assuming any less would be an exercise in underestimating JetBlue Mgmt. I think there is atleast enough precedent out there for any one to think better of doing that.

JayDub