Future of Jetblue?
08-03-2012 | 04:58 PM
#51
SDQ Base Chief
Joined: Mar 2006
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From: 320 CA
08-03-2012 | 05:09 PM
#52
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Jul 2006
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Right...by getting a CBA, this would do the very thing I mentioned beforehand. Believe me, I'm not looking to burn the place down either.
08-03-2012 | 07:04 PM
#53
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Posted this afternoon on the Dallas Morning News website:
American Airlines: We haven’t made any decisions about mergers, including ones involving JetBlue
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By tmaxon
[email protected]
3:41 pm on August 3, 2012 | Permalink
American Airlines has responded to the Los Angeles-based pilot’s letter that quoted senior American Airlines executives as saying that the airline was working on a deal with Jetblue Airways.
First, this statement from American Airlines spokesman Bruce Hicks:
“Contrary to a mistaken perception at a recent meeting with pilots, the company has made no decisions regarding consolidation at this time. American was asked what would have to happen if we wanted to merge with JetBlue, and there was a discussion of the considerations involved in merging with any potential partner.
“As we have repeatedly said, we are undertaking a thorough and objective evaluation of all consolidation alternatives and can say with absolute certainty that the process is proceeding with no preconceptions.”
And John Hale, American vice president of flight, one of the executives in the July 26 meeting that the pilot described, echoed the same message on his weekly hotline to pilots, after assuring the pilots that the company would throw out the current pilots’ contract if a new deal isn’t approved by pilots:
“Contrary to another misperception from the meeting, the company has made no decisions regarding consolidation at this time. As we have communicated previously, we are undertaking a thorough and objective evaluation of all alternatives and options regarding consolidation.”
American Airlines: We haven’t made any decisions about mergers, including ones involving JetBlue
*5*1*comments (0)
By tmaxon
[email protected]
3:41 pm on August 3, 2012 | Permalink
American Airlines has responded to the Los Angeles-based pilot’s letter that quoted senior American Airlines executives as saying that the airline was working on a deal with Jetblue Airways.
First, this statement from American Airlines spokesman Bruce Hicks:
“Contrary to a mistaken perception at a recent meeting with pilots, the company has made no decisions regarding consolidation at this time. American was asked what would have to happen if we wanted to merge with JetBlue, and there was a discussion of the considerations involved in merging with any potential partner.
“As we have repeatedly said, we are undertaking a thorough and objective evaluation of all consolidation alternatives and can say with absolute certainty that the process is proceeding with no preconceptions.”
And John Hale, American vice president of flight, one of the executives in the July 26 meeting that the pilot described, echoed the same message on his weekly hotline to pilots, after assuring the pilots that the company would throw out the current pilots’ contract if a new deal isn’t approved by pilots:
“Contrary to another misperception from the meeting, the company has made no decisions regarding consolidation at this time. As we have communicated previously, we are undertaking a thorough and objective evaluation of all alternatives and options regarding consolidation.”
08-03-2012 | 07:19 PM
#54
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Interesting read in the WSJ today as well, also very interesting last paragraph!
JetBlue Prefers to Play the Field
Discount carrier JetBlue Airways Corp. JBLU*-0.59% is flattered by the recent merger attention from American Airlines parent AMR Corp., AAMRQ*-0.59% but the company thinks it is having too much success playing the field.
JetBlue has carved out a dominant position at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and in recent years has leveraged that gateway by entering a series of lucrative tie-ups with mostly international carriers.
"We're focused on our own plan of organic growth, which we believe will produce better value for our shareholders, crew members and customers," Chief Executive Officer Dave Barger told employees in recent meetings.
Last week, Mr. Barger declined to say if JetBlue has received a nondisclosure agreement from American, which, if signed, would allow the two carriers to share confidential financial data to see if a combination was worth pursuing. But a person familiar with JetBlue said the airline hasn't received such a document and wouldn't sign it if one arrived.
AMR, which is in bankruptcy-court protection, is under pressure from its creditors to explore merger possibilities as an alternative to a plan to exit from Chapter 11 on its own. The Fort Worth, Texas, company, which has a smaller hub at JFK, recently identified five possible candidates and began the process by sending a nondisclosure agreement to the largest, ardent suitor US Airways Group Inc., LCC*+1.97% late last week.
People familiar with AMR indicated it that "multiple" confidentiality agreements have been sent in recent days, without saying which of the other carriers besides US Airways have received them. Details of the language couldn't be learned.
JetBlue, which has declined to join one of the three global airline marketing alliances, is focusing on what it calls its "open architecture" model of joining with a growing roster of airlines. Those carriers want access to JetBlue's extensive route networks out of New York, Boston and, to a lesser extent, Los Angeles and several Florida airports.
In 2010, American joined JetBlue's club as a way of bolstering its domestic offerings from New York and Boston. American offers its passengers travel on more than two dozen domestic JetBlue routes that the larger airline doesn't serve. JetBlue passengers can fly on more than a dozen American international routes from New York and Boston.
By inking such "interline" agreements with others, JetBlue can take a partner's passenger arriving from abroad to interior U.S. points and to the Caribbean with a single ticket and automatic luggage transfer. And it make available seats on partners' overseas flights to its domestic customers.
JetBlue, which signed its first partnership in 2007, now has 21 such relationships, with carriers as diverse as Emirates Airlinein Dubai; South African Airways; Aer Lingus EIL1.DB*+0.74% of Ireland and Deutsche Lufthansa LHA.XE*+0.64% of Germany. It signed up Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways 0293.HK*-1.56% last week, and Beijing's Air China 601111.SH*0.00% in June.
JetBlue said the number of passengers received through its partnerships is up 40% over last year. It won't break out the total number or overall revenue gains, but said on flights between JFK and Boston, about 125 passengers a day are coming from or connecting to the partner airlines. The relationships have boosted JetBlue's passenger counts by 50 a day on both the JFK-Los Angeles route and the JFK-Tampa route, the company said.
Rather than join an alliance and be restricted to working with a pre-defined subset of airlines, JetBlue is 'going retro' by remaining independent and signing contracts with a broad mix of airlines it sees as complementary partners," said Henry Harteveldt of consultants Atmosphere Research Group.
Interline agreements are common in the airline industry, and allow carriers to price and sell connections between their flights and partners' flights. But many are perfunctory. JetBlue said it puts more work into its relationships, according to Scott Resnick, JetBlue's director of airline alliances. He said he recently visited Johannesburg and Dubai in a 10-day stretch, with a stop in New York in between. JetBlue must contract how the revenue is divided up with its partners, tweak connecting times when it can and make travel agents aware of the new routing possibilities. This comes on top of the challenges of volatile fuel prices and JetBlue's relatively high growth rate, which could be upended by an economic slowdown.
While acknowledging that it is hardly blazing a trail with these types of partnerships, Mr. Resnick said, "We're selective about who we work with, the brand fit and network fit, and we're very personalized and nimble in how we work with our partners."
In a few cases, JetBlue takes the relationships further. Lufthansa, Emirates, South African, Japan Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines put their flight codes on select JetBlue flights and sell them as if they were their own. In some cases such as American, JetBlue has frequent-flier tie-ins as well.
The epicenter of the passenger exchanges is at New York's Kennedy Airport, where JetBlue commands 39% of the passengers carried on U.S. airlines and offers flights to more than 60 destinations in the U.S., Caribbean and Latin America.
"While we're only 5% of the U.S. marketplace, we have the 5% that everyone wants and needs in order to be successful," Mr. Barger said in a recent employee blog post. More than 60 international carriers fly to JFK, but most have little access to interior U.S. points unless than have a big U.S. partner through a global alliance.
Aer Lingus, JetBlue's first international partner, said the relationship enables it to offer its customers 30 destinations JetBlue serves from JFK and Boston. "We've more than quadrupled our connecting passengers in New York," said Jack Foley, the Irish carrier's executive vice president of North America, from fewer than 4% of customers before 2008 to more than 16% today. Aer Lingus once was in a global alliance, but quit.
Alliance-free Emirates teamed up with JetBlue in late 2010 and received 300 bookings in the first month, said Jim Baxter, the airline's vice president for U.S.A., Caribbean and Central America. Bookings now are running around 6,000 a month, he said. The program also "expands what we have to sell in countries outside the U.S.," he said, because Emirates can sell a ticket that takes a passenger from Orlando to Mumbai, via New York and its hub in Dubai.
Emirates plans to add a second daily superjumbo A380 flight to JFK from Dubai in January, which will represent an increase of 1,000 seats in both directions every week. "That is a challenge," Mr. Baxter said. "That is where JetBlue comes into play."
Even if JetBlue were interested in looking at a merger with American, some analysts think such a deal would face antitrust barriers because the pair would be so large at Kennedy, a slot-controlled airport with limited entry. Among U.S. carriers, American controls nearly 17% of the passengers at that airport.
JetBlue Prefers to Play the Field
Discount carrier JetBlue Airways Corp. JBLU*-0.59% is flattered by the recent merger attention from American Airlines parent AMR Corp., AAMRQ*-0.59% but the company thinks it is having too much success playing the field.
JetBlue has carved out a dominant position at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and in recent years has leveraged that gateway by entering a series of lucrative tie-ups with mostly international carriers.
"We're focused on our own plan of organic growth, which we believe will produce better value for our shareholders, crew members and customers," Chief Executive Officer Dave Barger told employees in recent meetings.
Last week, Mr. Barger declined to say if JetBlue has received a nondisclosure agreement from American, which, if signed, would allow the two carriers to share confidential financial data to see if a combination was worth pursuing. But a person familiar with JetBlue said the airline hasn't received such a document and wouldn't sign it if one arrived.
AMR, which is in bankruptcy-court protection, is under pressure from its creditors to explore merger possibilities as an alternative to a plan to exit from Chapter 11 on its own. The Fort Worth, Texas, company, which has a smaller hub at JFK, recently identified five possible candidates and began the process by sending a nondisclosure agreement to the largest, ardent suitor US Airways Group Inc., LCC*+1.97% late last week.
People familiar with AMR indicated it that "multiple" confidentiality agreements have been sent in recent days, without saying which of the other carriers besides US Airways have received them. Details of the language couldn't be learned.
JetBlue, which has declined to join one of the three global airline marketing alliances, is focusing on what it calls its "open architecture" model of joining with a growing roster of airlines. Those carriers want access to JetBlue's extensive route networks out of New York, Boston and, to a lesser extent, Los Angeles and several Florida airports.
In 2010, American joined JetBlue's club as a way of bolstering its domestic offerings from New York and Boston. American offers its passengers travel on more than two dozen domestic JetBlue routes that the larger airline doesn't serve. JetBlue passengers can fly on more than a dozen American international routes from New York and Boston.
By inking such "interline" agreements with others, JetBlue can take a partner's passenger arriving from abroad to interior U.S. points and to the Caribbean with a single ticket and automatic luggage transfer. And it make available seats on partners' overseas flights to its domestic customers.
JetBlue, which signed its first partnership in 2007, now has 21 such relationships, with carriers as diverse as Emirates Airlinein Dubai; South African Airways; Aer Lingus EIL1.DB*+0.74% of Ireland and Deutsche Lufthansa LHA.XE*+0.64% of Germany. It signed up Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways 0293.HK*-1.56% last week, and Beijing's Air China 601111.SH*0.00% in June.
JetBlue said the number of passengers received through its partnerships is up 40% over last year. It won't break out the total number or overall revenue gains, but said on flights between JFK and Boston, about 125 passengers a day are coming from or connecting to the partner airlines. The relationships have boosted JetBlue's passenger counts by 50 a day on both the JFK-Los Angeles route and the JFK-Tampa route, the company said.
Rather than join an alliance and be restricted to working with a pre-defined subset of airlines, JetBlue is 'going retro' by remaining independent and signing contracts with a broad mix of airlines it sees as complementary partners," said Henry Harteveldt of consultants Atmosphere Research Group.
Interline agreements are common in the airline industry, and allow carriers to price and sell connections between their flights and partners' flights. But many are perfunctory. JetBlue said it puts more work into its relationships, according to Scott Resnick, JetBlue's director of airline alliances. He said he recently visited Johannesburg and Dubai in a 10-day stretch, with a stop in New York in between. JetBlue must contract how the revenue is divided up with its partners, tweak connecting times when it can and make travel agents aware of the new routing possibilities. This comes on top of the challenges of volatile fuel prices and JetBlue's relatively high growth rate, which could be upended by an economic slowdown.
While acknowledging that it is hardly blazing a trail with these types of partnerships, Mr. Resnick said, "We're selective about who we work with, the brand fit and network fit, and we're very personalized and nimble in how we work with our partners."
In a few cases, JetBlue takes the relationships further. Lufthansa, Emirates, South African, Japan Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines put their flight codes on select JetBlue flights and sell them as if they were their own. In some cases such as American, JetBlue has frequent-flier tie-ins as well.
The epicenter of the passenger exchanges is at New York's Kennedy Airport, where JetBlue commands 39% of the passengers carried on U.S. airlines and offers flights to more than 60 destinations in the U.S., Caribbean and Latin America.
"While we're only 5% of the U.S. marketplace, we have the 5% that everyone wants and needs in order to be successful," Mr. Barger said in a recent employee blog post. More than 60 international carriers fly to JFK, but most have little access to interior U.S. points unless than have a big U.S. partner through a global alliance.
Aer Lingus, JetBlue's first international partner, said the relationship enables it to offer its customers 30 destinations JetBlue serves from JFK and Boston. "We've more than quadrupled our connecting passengers in New York," said Jack Foley, the Irish carrier's executive vice president of North America, from fewer than 4% of customers before 2008 to more than 16% today. Aer Lingus once was in a global alliance, but quit.
Alliance-free Emirates teamed up with JetBlue in late 2010 and received 300 bookings in the first month, said Jim Baxter, the airline's vice president for U.S.A., Caribbean and Central America. Bookings now are running around 6,000 a month, he said. The program also "expands what we have to sell in countries outside the U.S.," he said, because Emirates can sell a ticket that takes a passenger from Orlando to Mumbai, via New York and its hub in Dubai.
Emirates plans to add a second daily superjumbo A380 flight to JFK from Dubai in January, which will represent an increase of 1,000 seats in both directions every week. "That is a challenge," Mr. Baxter said. "That is where JetBlue comes into play."
Even if JetBlue were interested in looking at a merger with American, some analysts think such a deal would face antitrust barriers because the pair would be so large at Kennedy, a slot-controlled airport with limited entry. Among U.S. carriers, American controls nearly 17% of the passengers at that airport.
08-04-2012 | 03:29 AM
#55
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Why on earth does anyone want to work for Jetblue. For those of us here it's one thing but to uproot your career for the shell game that is this airline is mind boggling. Add to the the email from Flight Ops some sort of knowledge of the industry and mergers and the whole charade is laughable.
Bargers question and answer session with the analysts last week was very telling. Barger may not want to sell Jetblue but based on his answers it's becoming ever more apparent the board may.
We can't control any of this as we have zero contractual rights but anyone thinking of applying here or staying here needs to give considerable thought to their decision. With our PEA's we have little or no chance of being integrated.
Bargers question and answer session with the analysts last week was very telling. Barger may not want to sell Jetblue but based on his answers it's becoming ever more apparent the board may.
We can't control any of this as we have zero contractual rights but anyone thinking of applying here or staying here needs to give considerable thought to their decision. With our PEA's we have little or no chance of being integrated.
08-04-2012 | 03:36 AM
#56
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Feb 2008
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From: Urban chicken rancher.
Trickle-up ain't working real well these days either hot shot.
08-04-2012 | 04:27 AM
#57
Gets Weekends Off
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From: Left,Right, Left, Right,Right,Left, Right, Left
Just ask the soviets how that worked out for them. I'm sure anyone in china will tell you how great it is to live there. The N. Koreans love their new ruler. You can google it... they can't but you can.
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