Spirit & Frontier are growing like gangbusters right now. Spirit is particularly impressive in that they are making great strides in various performance metrics while beginning to compete in big legacy hubs. JetBlue is adapting by offering Blue Basic fares (basic economy fares) similar to those offered by other majors attempting to compete with the ULCCs, but even still, Spirit and Frontier have a very high RASM and the lowest CASM in the industry and are expanding their fleets and city pairings like crazy. Spirit is refreshing their cabins, adding in-flight Wi-Fi, etc. and slowly getting away from the 'bare bone' fleet approach while improving the quality of their product.

How is JetBlue supposed to compete with Spirt & Frontier, let alone all the other majors, when they are acting super conservative in a time of unprecedented economic growth? Between Spirit & Frontier alone, they are both adding an additional 300+ Airbus A320 NEOs. Money is cheap, travel demand is high, and there are some cities ripe for expansion. There is no way Spirit, Frontier, Allegiant, or even Breeze aren't eyeing many of the cities that JetBlue could likely succeed in if only JetBlue would make a move -- they're only going to get beaten out by coasting.

JetBlue is either stepping back and letting other carriers test various markets or maybe they're busy getting ready for a M&A with [*insert airline flavor of the week*].

 

JB is gonna win, with stock buybacks.

#winning

And... I agree with your assessment.

 

#askjoanna

 

Probably prepping themselves for M&A. Either get absorbed into a bigger carrier or do the buying and go after someone equal/smaller.

 

On the Culture-Scale, there is NO equal.

 

that’s what it seems like.

 

Spirit guy here...easy answer to this... JB doesn’t compete... they have an awesome product and a VERY loyal following in the NE... A JB pax living in suburban CT has no interest in saving 60 bucks to ride on Spirit to Florida. The market has shown in recent years that both can be financially viable. Spirit is Walmart and JB is Macy’s. We are growing like crazy at Spirit and we’re finally running a great airline operationally. I could be completely wrong but I don’t think JB management is shivering in they’re shoes by any stretch of the imagination. Just my 02 cents.

 

agreed with this. Both great places to work but much different clientele.

 

Florida is where we struggle against Spirit, and it is a different story down there. In the NE we struggle against DL, who provides a massive network and a lot of other great things JB doesn't offer.

 

The problem is that Jb doesn’t want to spend ANY MONEY. none. They are in cost cutting mode and have been for years. They think they can cut themselves into a better position. Everyone but the managers know they can’t. This place is run by a bunch of clown kids.