Whats up at jetBlue?

[Whiskerbizkit]

With the LH deal you might see a blue tail in IAH someday.

 

[CaptainSpaz]

What!!! I was expecting much more from you!!! Where is it...

This could be the beginning of the ________?

Apocalypse?

 

[ultrarunner]

It takes MILLIONS and MILLIONS of dollars to open up a crew base. First, you need the planes to put there...operations, dispatch, ramp-side folks, etc...

Then the cost of relocating crews, then training events, the list goes on and on.

With JetBlue's projected growth, I bet they could easily go several more years before they open another crew base, if at all.

 

[Hair-on-Fire]

It takes MILLIONS and MILLIONS of dollars to open up a crew base. First, you need the planes to put there...operations, dispatch, ramp-side folks, etc...

Then the cost of relocating crews, then training events, the list goes on and on.

With JetBlue's projected growth, I bet they could easily go several more years before they open another crew base, if at all.

Huh, none of those things has anything to do with opening a crew base. Take MCO. The planes already flew there, we already had rampers there, dispatch doesn't change a bit, and JetBlue isn't paying for relocation.

The only expenses the company could anticipate is the additional reserve staffing a new base requires and the cost of a Chief Pilot and Admin. personnel. The new MCO base, however, is being covered by the FLL chief and admin staff and there are no MCO reserves. So far, I can't think of any expense JetBlue has incurred by opening this virtual base. Maybe a couple of electrons of electricity by sending out the email?

 

[WateryGrave]

It takes MILLIONS and MILLIONS of dollars to open up a crew base. First, you need the planes to put there...operations, dispatch, ramp-side folks, etc...

Then the cost of relocating crews, then training events, the list goes on and on.

With JetBlue's projected growth, I bet they could easily go several more years before they open another crew base, if at all.

umm, no. Dispatch???? Thats always going to be in Forrest Hills regardless of how many crew bases we have. Opening an AUS base could be as cheap as say "nothing" especially if they do it as a virtual base or satellite base a la MCO and OAK. As far as making it a real base yeah that costs more, but just some support staff, chief pilot and such and maybe some office space. As far as putting planes there, the airplanes are already going to be there thats why the rumors of opening a new base.

To many things wrong with your post to address them all, maybe it was meant TIC. In that case... my bad!

 

[Chronic Jetlag]

It would cost JB very little $$$ if any to open up an E190 base in LGB since there is already a pilot base there. An AUS pilot base would cost more by comparison. Having an LGB 190 pilot base would make more sense.

 

[CaptainSpaz]

It takes MILLIONS and MILLIONS of dollars to open up a crew base. First, you need the planes to put there...operations, dispatch, ramp-side folks, etc...

Then the cost of relocating crews, then training events, the list goes on and on.

With JetBlue's projected growth, I bet they could easily go several more years before they open another crew base, if at all.

Thanks for the lesson in airline management. Are you looking for a job writing white papers for JetBlue?

 

[a320drivr]

Well our compensation report was just released. There were no surprises. We are light yrs behind our peers in pay, insurance, LTD/STD, rigs, intl pay, night pay, retirement, etc.

 

[IAHERJ]

Well like I said it is a rumor, we do have a couple more than 4 daily flights out of AUS coming in May. Maybe we are not crazy like CAL flying 757 into AUS to IAH (I know no parking spots in IAH at night) but still we are increasing and I have heard from a couple of people about AUS being a much bigger city for us then it is now (BTW AUS will services JFK, BOS, FLL, MCO, SFO, and LGB in May so even if we just do one flight a day that is more then 4). The other thing I heard from someone is management (take if for what it is worth) is that they want to exercise all options on the 190 (so 200 of these POS) and only take about 20 more 320s.

All of this is what I have heard and none of it is fact, this is aviation so things change day by day, just like you got hired at CAL with a 2 year upgrade and now it is more like 7-10 depending on your next contract (BTW no hating on CAL just pointing out that the industry can be great one day and bad the next)

I have been neglecting my flightinfo reading lately but wanted to respond. I think you misinterpreted my post. I may have come off as being condescending in my post regarding the comment about the 4 daily flights. I live here and am interested in any airline offering more non-stop flights to anywhere. I don't look at it as a competition with my airline at all. I look at it as an opportunity to travel without having to go through IAH on my airline. I hope Jetblue expands here and offers more flights to more cities. You have a great jumpseat policy(I've used you guys to JFK once) and I look forward to seeing more flights here. I just haven't read anything about this and was surprised.
As for the comment about me expecting a 2-3 year upgrade at CAL when I hired on, you couldn't be more incorrect. If I had a hard on to be a captain I would have stayed at AirTran where I had a class date to upgrade on the 717 the same month I began class at Continental. As for the 7-8 year upgrade now, well guys 2 months senior to me are going to upgrade in May(which is less than 3 years on property). I'd guess a 4-5 year upgrade for me(if I chose to go that route) if things stay the same around here. Upgrade isn't as big of a deal here.
All the best!

IAHERJ