JetBlue Airways

From Free net encyclopedia

(Redirected from JetBlue)

Template:Infobox Airline Template:Lowercase jetBlue Airways is an American low-cost airline owned by JetBlue Airways Corporation (Template:NASDAQ). The company is headquartered in the Forest Hills neighborhood of New York City, New York, and has major hubs located at John F. Kennedy International Airport and Boston's Logan International Airport.

On August 29, 2001 jetBlue began a focus city operation at Long Beach Municipal Airport near Template:USCity, and another at Logan International Airport in Template:USCity in 2004. It also has major operations at Oakland International Airport in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as at Washington Dulles International Airport. The airline mainly serves destinations in the United States, along with flights to the Caribbean region.

jetBlue also maintains a corporate office in Template:USCity.

Contents

[edit]

History

[edit]

Foundings

CEO David Neeleman founded the company in February of 2000. Several of jetBlue's executives, including Neeleman, are former Southwest Airlines employees. JetBlue started by following Southwest's approach of offering low-cost travel, but sought to distinguish itself from its idol with its amenities, such as in-flight entertainment. In Neeleman's words, jetBlue looks "to bring humanity back to air travel."

jetBlue's founders had originally set out to call the airline "Taxi" and therefore have a yellow livery, to associate the airline with New York. The idea was dropped, however, for several reasons: the negative connotation behind New York taxis; the ambiguity of the word taxi with regard to air traffic control; and threats from investor JP Morgan to pull its share ($20 million of the total $128 million) of the airline's initial funding unless the name was changed. The airline's founders also considered making its home base in Trenton, New Jersey, but this idea did not gain much support. jetBlue is a non-union airline.

[edit]

9/11 aftermath, profitable years

jetBlue was one of only a few U.S. airlines that made a profit during the sharp downturn in airline travel following the September 11, 2001 attacks. Since its IPO on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 2002, jetBlue has become one of the most popular airline stocks in history and currently has a multi-billion dollar market capitalization. Financial results were very strong for the airline throughout the 2002-2004 years, and many analysts and journalists lauded the airline for its success. Also, the airline sector responded to jetBlue's market presence by starting mini-rival carriers: Delta Air Lines started Song, and United Airlines launched another rival called Ted.

As part of its commitment to providing high-quality inflight entertainment, in 2002 jetBlue acquired LiveTV, LLC for $41 million in cash and the retirement of $39 million of LiveTV debt. LiveTV equips JetBlue with 36 channels of live DirecTV television programming at every seat. Two years later,jetBlue announced it would add 100 channels of XM Satellite Radio, Fox TV programs and 20th Century Fox movies to its in-flight entertainment in 2004. The movies are free on flights to Santiago, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico where DirecTV service is not offered. Movies on all other flights cost $5. Image:JBLU weekly chart 2005-09-16.png

As the airline continued to rake in record profits and break financial records, new planes allowed for additional route opportunities to be pursued. This included jetBlue's first international service, New York to the Dominican Republic on June 10, 2004. Additional service to the Bahamas in December 2004, and there are plans to begin service to Bermuda effective May 4, 2006.

With new routes, new planes, and new profit levels, jetBlue was on top of the industry for much of 2003 and 2004. The airline's reputation, and stock price, was very good. However, trouble was on the horizon. For many years, some analysts had predicted that at a certain point, JetBlue's growth rate would become unsustainable. However, the airline continued to add planes and routes to the fleet at a brisk pace.

In 2004, jetBlue began running flights from New York's LaGuardia Airport and added service in 2005 to Newark Liberty International Airport in Template:USCity, thereby serving all three major New York area airports. Also in 2005, the company added service between JFK and Boston Logan with 10 daily flights using its new 100-seat Embraer 190 aircraft.

[edit]

Record High Fuel Prices

In October 2005, jetBlue announced its quarterly profit plunged from US$8.1 million to $2.7 million largely due to rising fuel costs. In addition, the airline was struggling with their new aircraft, the Embraer 190. Operational issues, fuel prices, and low fares, jetBlue's hallmark, were bringing its financial performance down. In addition, with higher costs related to the airline's numerous amenities, jetBlue was becoming less competitive.

Regardless, the airline continued to plan for growth. It was announced that 36 new aircraft were scheduled for delivery in the year 2006. However, the next earnings report would bring the entire airline down to Earth.

In February 2006, jetBlue announced its first ever quarterly loss. For 4th quarter 2005, the airline bled $42.4 million, enough to make them unprofitable for the entire year of 2005. The loss was the airline's first since going public in 2002. In addition, jetBlue forecasted a loss for 2006, citing high fuel prices, operating inefficiency, and fleet costs. The airline faces financial problems, along with the results from deviating from its business plan by adding a second aircraft type, as we close out the decade.


jetBlue Airways has been the first US airline to start-up with more than $100 million dollars, first to offer 24 channels of live satellite TV, first US airline to introduce the "paperless cockpit", the first U.S. airline to install bullet-proof cockpit doors across the fleet, and was among the first US airlines to install security cameras in passenger cabin for the safety of crew and passengers[1].

[edit]

Fleet

jetBlue's fleet consists of 88 Airbus A320 aircraft[2], part of firm orders totalling 173[3], all of which will use International Aero Engines (IAE) V2500 engines [4]. It began delivery of 100 Embraer 190 aircraft in the 3rd quarter of 2005, with an option for an additional 100 aircraft. Ten of the aircraft are currently in service. [5]

The average jetBlue Airways fleet age is 2.8 years old in March 2006.

The airline's Airbus A320 aircraft have a single-class configuration of 156 seats, while the Embraer 190 has a single-class configuration of 100 seats. [6] In the early history of jetBlue, the company's CEO, as he claims, had always sat on the 27th (last) row of each Airbus A320 aircraft he flew on, signifying that pleasing the customer is more important than pleasing the CEO, since the 27th row had no reclining seats.

In July 2005, jetBlue announced that it would be upgrading the size of its seatback TVs that provide customers with DirecTV programming. The airline also aims to add more than 100 channels of XM radio to all of their aircraft. In addition, the airline aims to increase the size of the overhead bins on all fleet aircraft within the same timeframe.

[edit]

Crewmembers

jetBlue currently employs around 10,000 "crewmembers," which is increasing at a rate of about 10 employees per day. Customer support is handled via employees in Utah working from their homes, providing jetBlue with significant savings. As of last year, JetBlue has been selling 20% of their tickets over the phone, with the remainder being sold online.

[edit]

Incidents

In September 2002, jetBlue Airways provided more than 5 million reservation records to a U.S. military contractor, Torch Concepts, for use in passenger profiling experiments for security purposes. In September 2003, the incident became public when travel writer and privacy activist Edward Hasbrouck found a Torch Concepts conference presentation on its work, naming JetBlue and including personal data on a sample passenger, posted on the Internet. [7] [8]

Image:Jetblueemergency.jpg On 21 September, 2005, jetBlue Airways Flight 292 performed an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport following a failure of the front landing gear during retraction. The plane landed after circling for three hours to burn fuel and lighten the aircraft. At 6:20pm, local time, the aircraft came to a stop without incident on runway 25L. The only apparent damage to the plane upon landing was the destruction of the front tires; the front landing strut held. None of the passengers or flight crew aboard were injured, but they were able to watch coverage of their incident on the plane televisions.[9] [10]

[edit]

Destinations

A complete list of destinations can be found at jetBlue destinations. jetBlue currently avoids flying routes which are in direct competition to other low-cost carriers, particularly Southwest Airlines. In doing so, the airline has achieved a near monopoly in Long Beach and is ranked number three in the New York market overall, with its 3 major airports. JetBlue flies to 33 destinations and will launch service to Richmond, Virginia in March 2006, Portland, Maine and Bermuda in May 2006, and Pittsburgh and Jacksonville in late June. Future plans call for expansion across the United States and into Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. jetBlue is now awaiting the grant to serve Cancun, Mexico. They are competing for the route against Delta Air Lines. There are no plans for further international expansion.

[edit]

New routes

[edit]

Suspended routes

jetBlue has pulled out of two cities, citing poor customer demand. Santo Domingo service was cancelled due to the inability of JetBlue aircraft to carry the amount of cargo the route required. Atlanta was pulled because of poor times of flights and not enough customer build up in ATL, OAK, or LGB.

  • Atlanta to Long Beach
  • Atlanta to Oakland
  • Sacramento to Washington/Dulles
  • Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to New York/JFK
  • Newark to Tampa(from May 2006)
[edit]

See also

[edit]

Books

Blue Streak by Barbara S. Peterson, Portfolio, 2004 ISBN 1-59184-058-9

[edit]

External links


Lists of Aircraft | Aircraft manufacturers | Aircraft engines | Aircraft engine manufacturers

Airports | Airlines | Air forces | Aircraft weapons | Missiles | Timeline of aviation

de:JetBlue Airways

fr:JetBlue Airways ja:ジェットブルー航空 nl:JetBlue Airways sv:JetBlue Airways

Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/JetBlue_Airways"