I don’t think that too many jetBlue pilots are hoping for an acquisition………..maybe the very very junior might be……maybe the odd ORD or DEN commuter (one in particular that has 20+ years who is just an awesome awesome guy) but I think it’s an overestimation made by others……talking with some of them there is a “well at least they have widebodies and we will never go out of business” consolation but I don’t think they want that at the expense of thier seniority……and I think all United pilots want our JFK slots (I don’t see Geraghty allowing that without an acquisition but she’s made a few mistakes in her career)

 

I have not heard one pilot here say they "want JFK slots". Maybe some legacy United people living in Long Island that are driving to EWR now but other than that its not widely talked about at all. Only thing management has ever said about JFK is bringing back the Premium Service flights and building out existing hubs. The current focus is ORD, DEN and IAH with some increase in WB flights as new 787s are being delivered. Not trying to start a new hub from scratch in super competitive JFK where you are now competing with every airline in the world, including Delta and AA. If anything that's a reason to NOT try and hub there.

Most pilots based in EWR either live in PA or NJ or commute. I can't imagine anyone wanting to now have to drive past EWR to get to JFK or commute offline to JFK to start/end a trip unless they live right near the airport. If they aren't on the Airbus it won't matter because that's the plane that going to be flying in and out of there (for now) and nobody is going to give up their WB job just to fly domestic transcons.

 

This. If it ever happened, I would imagine those trips would be flown out of the SFO and LAX bases, a trip that started in JFK would be a sick call bonanza in EWR.

 

Bingo. It would go just like BWI - flown by other base pilots.

 

EWR320 is a little bit of a different animal. I think there are a significant portion of Airbus folks that are happy that we will be flying out of JFK whether that's because they live closer (CT, NY) there or it's an easier commute.

 

The BWI pairings had a die-hard group of Maryland/Delaware folks who exclusively bid BWI and that didn't stop it from going away. Supposedly the company did the math and the parking + crosstown pay was way more than a hotel, so it went away.

I guess we will see. Who knows.

 

BWI trips were desirable by a select few DC pilots (those closer to BWI)…. Company stopped building them in the bid packages to avoid crosstown pay and use PP to fix broken trips that touched BWI..

Those JFK trips will likely be crewed by LAX/SFO Airbus crews

 

Maybe the bar should be set in the CBA where EWR and JFK are separate bases or they must provide DH transportation or in the case of LGA they reimburse transport from JFK, like we have.

 

We already have all that in the contract. EWR is the main base per the contract. Any trips that originate in LGA or JFK are already subject to a host of other things like pay, duty time, parking reimbursement etc. Its not a pay issue, but more of a convenience issue, especially if you are a commuter because you can't commute on United into JFK so while everyone else is getting PS during weather events to EWR you are trying to find your own way to JFK or LGA.

These are generally narrowbody problems, since all the WB are in EWR.