Quote:
Originally Posted by JulesWinfield
Yeah, but they aren’t a legacy. Frontier and Spirit offer a crappy product, but we know what we are and do it well. JB doesn’t seem to have an identity and I don’t really see a future in their model, but I haven’t done a lot of research. It seems like this deal is a Hail Mary to try to stay relevant. I like my chances at a mega ULCC over an almost legacy with an identity crisis.
So I used to think jetBlue had an identity crisis too. They don't; it's a plan they have communicated all along to start Mint, segway that into a premium trans atlantic cabin product and segway that into a Widebody IF they sell well long term. I just didn't believe them. LOL. It's not an identity crisis, its an incomplete plan still unfolding. So far it's on pace and doing exactly what they said it would. DL, AA, UA didn't start with wide bodies on day 1 either. I'm sure at some point it seemed like an incomplete identity until they were done 100%. When they started with Mint and I thought that was crazy. Turns out it worked great. They say they want 40 more A321s for more mint planes like yesterday, maybe they will use the spirit A321s if they get them. When they started LHR/LGW the route planning VP said it is 100% a test bed for wide bodies down the road. That is the plan. It's always been the plan. When the 20+ remaining LRs and XLRs show up and they are doing 6 or so countries in Europe maybe it doesn't seem so crazy. We will see. If they do well, they will upgauge the ocean crossing stuff to wide bodies. They have said that recently in pocket sessions. (Robin says he likes 787s because it's the plane that can hit any city on earth from any B6 focus city). So yeah, maybe in 7-10 years they are a widebody LCC and that's just normal. I think it's ok not wanting to be a legacy and not wanting to be a ULCC either. They don't have to pick a side.