if someone doesn’t buy B6 in the next 2 years, I don’t see it happening. And if it doesn’t happen, I see a real tough row to hoe for the blewjet.

Buying jetBlue is not really good business for any of the major airlines right now.

It makes more sense from a business perspective to let the wounded animal slowly bleed out instead of wasting a bullet.

The drama. The numbers are improving. I wouldn’t count on us dying.

Yeah JetBlue is definitely not dying. Not to mention they OWN a lot of desirable assets including a bunch of aircraft, desirable slots, ETOPS, and a whole ass terminal in JFK to name a few. If they can't turn it around somebody will want what they have and not in fire sale form. They're not a "die on the vine" airline.

We’re not even a year into the CEO/total plan of action change that took place when the merger failed. And they’re hoping to break even in 2025, with the worst of the unintentional fleet parking taking place. Given those circumstances, I would call that quite the salvage job and it was because they finally made the tough decisions.

Anyone else think we’d be profitable without the NEO issue? It’s not like we’re choosing to park airplanes. They would be flying if they could.

Woah! I wasn’t aware someone “OWNED” ETOPS. I guess that means we are paying you each and every time I fly an ETOPS segment in the 777 I fly. Wow! That was pretty savvy of you all. I can’t see you guys not completely clobbering all of us now.

In all seriousness, JetBlue will survive this storm one way or the other. Yes- a merger with Alaska would be a great fit in my mind.

Fair jab that I included ETOPS while making a point about things JetBlue owns. Obviously they don't own ETOPS but have the program which has value. I'm sure you knew that was the intent, but this is the internet and being pedantic is a sport.

Nobody knows what the future holds for JetBlue in terms of mergers or if one will even happen. Personally I don't see one in the near to medium term. My only contribution to the conversation is that I don't think the company is in dire straits and in imminent danger of bankruptcy. At least not in the near term.

Delta stock down 3% today and Jetblue up 5%. Interesting. What are the chances that active merger negotiations happening right now? Or it could be related to the new routes that are supposed to be announced this week but I doubt it.

Allegiant and Frontier having decent days too

Could just be a counter trend rally. Legacy airline stocks have been doing much better the past year.

Not that interesting and definitely within the normal trading range of the stock. Were it to jump 30%, 40% that would raise an eyebrow. But a few % either way is nothing .

That makes sense

I would love nothing more than for DL, UA or hell even AA to buy us. That said, I don't think it'll ever happen, and a few percentage points of movement on our stock doesn't indicate anything.

Yes absolutely. Get out the bleach and start washing those shirts baby!

uuuuuuuggghh NOPE

Maybe Beeeze will buy jetBlue. Hell the planes literally look the same from the outside these days lol

Hey the good news is Joanna has nixed the very popular opinion that we should join an alliance! We’re slowly whittling away the rumors to find the turd nugget within!

It's become clear there are no big plans for the next year or two. I don't think there's any secret plan behind the scenes. What you see is what you get. At least that's what this management team is doing. It's frustrating to watch others make moves and do well while we stagnate and become a marginally bigger version of the airline we were 10-15 years ago. This business is ciclycal so I hope this is just a trough.

That was a non answer from Joanna. It wasn't a no, it was a not right now. She's right that there's costs and complexities associated with joining an alliance. It takes significant investment in aligning reservation and other IT systems with the alliance, marketing, training staff, etc. Jetblue would also need a product that's desirable for an alliance to acquire. An airline with operational reliability issues, no lounges or domestic first class available fleetwide for customers with reciprocal elite status to utilize isn't an attractive proposition for a global alliance to add to their portfolio. Heck, lack of a well defined brand and network are causes for concern too.

Of those shortcomings, Jetblue is fixing the first, adding the second, and rumored to add the third sometime soon, and you can't go a week without hearing the words east coast leisure and vfr. If Jetblue remains independent, the odds are pretty high it will join a global alliance once all of those initiatives have hit full stride.

To be clear I did not think DAL was buying B6. AA is possible? Delta down 3% and Jetblue up 5% is actually pretty rare.

You guys realize that anything they say that’s not filed with the SEC means almost nothing right?

Pilot CEO/Pilot BOD opinions don’t mesh with that.

Marginally bigger? Our pilot group has just about doubled in the past decade. To be fair, the engine issues are driving the stagnation. We dodged a bullet on our attempt to scale up the business (merger with spirit). Now's the time to regroup, repair the operation, avoid chapter 11 so we can COMPETE AND GROW in the future.

Besides United and Delta, who are making moves and doing them well? Spirit? Frontier? Southwest? Allegiant? American? Breeze? Alaska?

Alaska is firing on all cylinders. I would put them in the same category as DL/UA

You’re right. Not fair to say marginally bigger than the last 10-15 years but fair to say than the last 5 years. That was exaggerated on my part.

As far as who is making moves I suppose that’s also some frustration showing on my part.
However I would count Alaska and Hawaiian merging and working towards solidifying their position out west as making moves.
Agree Southwest is going through some struggles and Spirit is obviously not in great shape but the others you mentioned are not in our peer set (for pay and contract comparison purposes and such, much respect for the crews).

If UA acquired JB, that dude would physically shat himself 😂 knowing the seniority he just gave up.

Marty just insinuated on that recent podcast that JB is looking for the right alliance to join. Remember, they also said they have no plans for a premium lounge.....less than a year later: premium lounge announced. They know darn well they need an alliance to help feed Europe and sell lots of credit cards.
Joanna's comms essentially say nothing. They're barely readable anymore.

Just a reality check.

Everyone has an opinion but good moves / attempts at good moves
- In the past 5 years we have grown the pilot group by 37% (3600 - 4900).
- We have added a new fleet type and are retiring an old fleet type.
- We have added ETOPS and transatlantic operations which by all accounts are successful (seasonally).
- NEA alliance was denied in court.

Bad moves...
- We attempted a merger that was denied in court (luckily). This moved was spurred by the prospect of competing with a much larger ULCC (Frontier + Spirit) in FLL and MCO. Alaska made a similar defensive move in acquiring Virgin America to keep JetBlue from growing in the West Coast via a merger with VA.
- Losing focus on product and offering
- allowing the operational reliability to slip to worst in the industry.
- Losing focus on Core Markets (BOS/FLL in particular) during an attempt to expand into LAX and EWR (still an attempt at growth but allowed Delta in particular a foothold in Boston)

Responses to this
- Re focus on our Core markets in particular the North East region. (THIS IS WHERE JETBLUE MAKES ITS MONEY).
- Adding lounges to strengthen our credit card / frequent flier program (this is the where the majors make their money. They also fly airplanes)
- Re focus on operational reliability
- Re focus on product offering to reflect changes in market demand away from no frills flying.

We burnt a lot of cash on the failed merger especially with the break up fee and integration investment. Only in the long run will we know if this price was worth the result (stopping a mega ULCC potentiallly crushing us in Florida).

Out of our control
- NEO engine issues.

The reality is we are where we are now. Is the current strategy the one that will result in the best success for the airline? I'm far from a mgmt cheerleader but they are taking responsible steps to right the ship (in my opinion) if this business is to prosper and grow again, or make it an attractive merger target through strength (not weakness)

It certainly appears that way. Let's see how things look a few years after integration.

Appreciate the thorough and thoughtful response. I largely agree. Despite the tone of my previous post I'm on the more optimistic side of things. I just have my moments of frustration. It's going to be a slow couple of years and hopefully whatever plan they have pans out one way or the other. Like most of us not in a position of making decisions I'm just along for the ride.

^^^ pretty staggering to see in one chart.

I know we have redelpoyed on some new routes, ISP, MHT shortly but when are we going to be announcing new routes? There has been a lot of cuts but very little news on redeployment of our assets. Are we adding more volume to the NE>FL? What's the deal? These are not NEO routes with GTF issues, where are we putting those airplanes?

that's the neat part....were not redepoying assets and we're really not announcing new routes. It's all about shrinking and consolidating right now.

Announcements for domestic coming in January. Today they announced Bos to Madrid and Edinburgh for 2025 summer seasonal.

They have to be going somewhere. I guess for the cuts earlier this year, they are flying ISP and MHT, plus the northeast frequency additions or random adds, like PVD to (pbi?, I forget). They aren’t being parked. We’ll know next month where we’ll be flying to replace the announced cuts from last week.

Allegedly some surprising additions. We shall see.

First class on domestic has been long over due. Happy about this move.

I agree with the fine potato folk, it’s a last minute knee-jerk reaction. Didn’t they say in a recent pocket session they had no plans for domestic mint?

That's always the way it goes. Executives can't publicly comment, even in a pocket session, that they will do XYZ since that would be proving material information. They would need to make SEC disclosures, etc. That's why it has just been "rumors" up until now