Originally Posted by
tpersuit
The whole point I was trying to make is JetBlue cannot expand there because they don't have a fleet that falls in the commuter category. In the article, JetBlue stated it wanted to expand at LGB. I can also confirm this from my time as a flight instructor there. The head of my flying club, has been fighting a proposed change of the airport from Class D to Class C for a while now. The main pusher for this is JetBlue. With a LGB airport that is Class C, it will become easier to increase Air Carrier slots. This at the detriment of General Aviation.
Now, I don't see LGB becoming a Class C anytime soon, so my theory with all this is, that JetBlue only has one play here to expand at LGB. Since it's highly unlikely they will get a fleet of planes under MTOW of 75,000 lbs they will turn to a codeshare agreement to bring in more passengers to fill their planes up. Since ExpressJet's service has similar offerings with XM radio and good meals, as well as 6 slots of their own at LGB, I think it is very plausible this could play out.
Since JetBlue can't expand there with their own airplanes, this would be a win-win for both companies.
Firstly, I don't think that farming out flying to a regional would be a win at all for the JetBlue pilot group. JetBlue has no trouble filling up aircraft out of LGB, so having regional feed really isn't going to help anything.
Secondly, how exactly would making the airport a class C make any difference in the number of slots available? The city of Long Beach controls the slots. I've never heard about this before, but I would think that JetBlue would be pushing for a class C because we get a TCAS RA about every other time we go in there.