Originally Posted by
Flyby1206
Yeah it's a stretch, but feel free to critique. Robin Hayes knew we needed to scale and needed a national presence, he also knew this would be tough as an un-aligned carrier which brought about the NEA. Unfortunately, the execution of the merger and alliance was horrible. The idea remains sound.
JB/F9 is very similar to the old JB/NK, but executed in the right way. Step one would be get all of the JB/UA stuff settled. Blanket domestic codeshare with UA as well as a Star alliance membership for JB. After that you could merge JB/F9 and use their existing bases to expand. I would focus mainly on the major US cities where UA doesn't have a big presence. F9 brings DFW/ATL/PHL/PHX type of places in addition to BOS/JFK/FLL/MCO from JB. This would expand the reach of the UA/Star network and likely cut into other legacies bread and butter (AA in particular). It would also help other Star alliance carriers globally who serve these cities but have no feed support. Crazy? Dumb? Probably yes to both.
Far be it for to criticize.
Their current fleet is around 170, 24 are being returned this year and different 69 until 2030. Essentially Jetblue would be purchasing current aircraft and, perhaps, an additional order book.
DEN, MCO and ATL are their biggest bases with, up to, 80 flights per day much of which is seasonal. Extremely limited infrastructure (like spirit) and opposite culture (like spirit) so to me that purchase/merger/acquisition would be solely about aircraft.
Could it work? Good question. The Star Alliance part could be helpful but management continue to state that isn't in the plans. In the end wiith current Jetblue management I just don't see it.