Quote:
Originally Posted by Trip7
Low Cost Long Haul has been tried many many times and the battlefield is littered with the blood of deceased carriers, most recently WOW. Air Asia X is the only Carrier I can think of that has had limited success. Maybe Azul in Brazil too but haven’t kept track of their financials recently. Guess jetBlue believes the A321NEO will be the savior. If they struggle I could see Needleman making a Steve Jobs type return to jetBlue thru a Moxy Airlines merger or hostile takeover.
While many have derided JetBlue for not having a clear and concise plan when it comes to many operational and organizational strategies, or at least the communication thereof, one thing most are sure of is that they are no longer strictly a low cost carrier by various definitions. One such measure is class of service and they will now have 4. Mint(business), Even More Space(read comfort +), Core(coach) and relatively recently announced basic economy. If anything I forsee B6 making a somewhat similar transition as did WestJet of Canada, into a full service carrier, which many will remember David Neeleman had a hand in founding before JetBlue. WestJet started long haul flying with old 767s not too long ago as a test and just received their first of almost a dozen 787s after deciding to make an honest go of it. They have been fairly successful thus far and JetBlue isn’t even trying to use WBs...yet.
The market is dynamic and B6 having prime hubs in JFK & BOS, while not guaranteeing success by any means, doesn’t necessarily doom them to the recesses of the transatlantic battlefield either. Reference DL’s preemptive response to presumed competition.