Dear JetBlue Pilots:

Well, we made it through the busy holiday season – thanks to you! Though we struggled with a major IROP on Christmas day, we still delivered our customers to their destinations, completing our operations to a higher percentage than any other airline. Last Thursday, for instance, we publicly announced that JetBlue’s December completion factor was an amazing 99.6%! This statistic is impressive any time of year, but it’s especially significant since you accomplished it during one of our busiest and most challenging months!

We appreciate all of you who flew trips over the holidays to make certain that our Customers could fulfill their holiday wishes and spend time with their loved ones. Your dedication and passion for delivering the JetBlue Experience are what motivate Customers to continue flying our airline throughout the year, and we appreciate your dedication to make JetBlue successful.

New JRA Pay Rate

As you know, there were several operational challenges in December, including RVR failure at JFK on Christmas morning, which caused us to rely heavily on volunteers and Junior-Assigned Crewmembers to achieve the impressive 99.6% completion factor.

Please know we recognize the impact that junior assignments have upon our Crewmembers’ quality of life, and we junior assign only as a final alternative to canceling a flight. However, when junior assignments do occur and Crewmembers fly on holidays to make the operation successful, we believe the following pay adjustments are appropriate:


Junior Assignment Pay Increase

We are very pleased that Junior Assignment Pay will increase from previous rates to 40% of a Pilot’s base rate effective January 1, 2006. In addition, we will retroactively extend the new rate to all Crewmembers who helped us maintain operational integrity by accepting junior assignments in December.

Here are the new Junior Assignment (JA) Rates:


Year A320 E190
CA JA FO JA CA JA FO JA

1 44.19 20.38 28.28 14.84
2 45.20 22.47 28.92 15.98
3 46.20 24.56 29.57 16.64
4 47.22 26.66 30.22 17.54
5 48.27 28.76 30.89 18.40
6 49.24 29.33 31.51 18.77
7 50.22 29.92 32.14 19.15
8 51.22 30.52 32.78 19.53
9 52.25 31.13 33.44 19.92
10 53.29 31.75 34.10 20.32
11 54.36 32.38 34.79 20.72
12 55.44 33.03 35.48 21.14

New Holiday Pay Policy


The current holiday pay policy in the Flight Scheduling Guide states that a Crewmember must fly her/his trip on a holiday (Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day or New Year’s Day) to receive holiday pay of two times base rate for hours flown or four hours holiday pay (whichever is greater).

Crew Services brought forward to both Flight Operations and Inflight Leadership an issue that was of concern to many of you. There were situations where disruptions to our operations caused some Crewmembers to become illegal for all, or portions, of their holiday day trips. The leaders and schedulers in Crew Services and our pilot leaders, felt that if you chose to bid a trip for a holiday, holiday pay should be protected for the time of your original trip or the time you actually flew (whichever is greater). Accordingly, we are pleased to announce that our holiday pay policy has been revised to guarantee holiday pay when your trip is modified due to operational changes beyond an individual Crewmember’s control.

Again, we will retroactively apply this new holiday pay policy to Christmas Day and New Year’s Day to demonstrate our appreciation to all the Crewmembers who picked up trips on those holidays but may have experienced IROPs which, under the previous policy, prevented them from receiving their full holiday pay. Any Crewmember who was denied portions of holiday pay will receive the greater pay from their original pairing or the actual time flown on Christmas and New Year’s Day.

In addition to our pilots, we would like to take the opportunity to thank our dedicated team in Crew Services who worked long hours to help put the operation back together and then struggled through the “hangover” effect of the IROP for close to a week.

Crew Services is currently developing tools to review holiday pairings affected by operational changes. Please be patient since every holiday pay discrepancy requires manual calculations and adjustments; however, Crew Services will make every effort to expedite the process of adjusting holiday pay. If you believe your holiday pay requires adjustments, please submit a Crew Service Request Form (found on the JetBlue intranet homepage under “Blue Tools”) or speak with your Chief Pilot Leader.

Thank you for all the hard work that you do. Please know that it is appreciated and that much of that appreciation will be directed into action this year as we increase staffing and begin the process of implementing the software tools we need for the future.



Warm regards,


Dave Bushy, Scott Green and the Flight Operations Leadership Team