JetBlue to fly in Charlotte

[roadtrip]

"Southwest will never come to the East Coast"
Heard that one at a Management Employee meeting Ten years ago. If you listen close you can hear the Fat lady singing! Jet blue Southwest and everyone else is having us for dinner

 

[deltawatch]

While I agree with your commits about the attitude of most GSO residents, the inevitable is underway. The runway work has started they are rerouting the main road to the terminal for it now. The state and federal government are about to introduce two new Interstate highways (I785 & I73) both are aimed straight for the airport, they are old hyw 220 and 29. The new beltway around the outside of the city is set to open about the same time the runway work is complete. When all is finished (next five years) all roads will lead to GSO. You see the key here is GSO’s location, It doesn’t mater what anyone thinks or wants GSO is located in the center of about 5 million people. CLT can’t say that. RDU can’t say that. I bet Bluejet knows that!

 

[Hello Newman]

Our declining service levels are responsible for the success of Southwest, AirTran, and JetBlue. Not to mention our "back and run mentality". This latest assualt should NOT come as a shock to anyone.

 

[wench]

Hello Newman,
yes it tis!

Miss ya baby!

 

[PHL]

"Embraer''s new 100-seat regional jet"

Someone please explain to me what defines a "REGIONAL JET"??? With Embraer stepping their product line up in size, comparable to the 717 (which is considered a "mainline" type of plane), what allows them to pass these off as "RJ"s with 100 seats (including the possibility of First class seating!)

 

[Analyst]

New Generation Regional Jets:
100-seat regional jets (80 to 119 seats)318,717,ERJ 190-200
Mid-size regional jets (50 to 79 seats) CRJ 900
Small regional jets (less than 50 seats) EJR 140/145

Boeing mentions that the B717-200 is a regional jet.

 

[gilbertguy]

----------------
On 6/13/2003 5:08:44 PM PHL wrote:

"Embraer''s new 100-seat regional jet"

Someone please explain to me what defines a "REGIONAL JET"??? With Embraer stepping their product line up in size, comparable to the 717 (which is considered a "mainline" type of plane), what allows them to pass these off as "RJ"s with 100 seats (including the possibility of First class seating!)

I think it''s how the airlines negotiate contracts defining these aircraft types that makes them Regional....and pay scales go along with this...to the chagrin of all involved.....

 

[Furloughedagain]

PRN Newswire: US Airways Express to Acquire 100 Airbus 330-300 RJ''s.

July 9, 2003. US Airways Express affiliate carrier Republic Airlines, a Wexford Management company has placed an order for 100 Airbus 330-300 RJs.

According to Airbus the RJ-330 will revolutionize the transatlantic airline competitive environment by providing a regional cost-structure to worldwide service.

US Airways CEO David Seigel stated during a press conference Friday, "I am pleased to announce that the further sacrifices of the US Airways employees have made it possible for us to launch this fleet of widebody regional jets. We intend to start service to a variety of both trans-atlantic, and trans-pacific destinations with this revolutionary new product."

US Airways Express operates over 400 regional jets from 32 through 200+ seats to over 200 markets worldwide in support of US Airways 70 aircraft mainline fleet.

 

[Furloughedagain]

PitBull...

It was a joke. The A330 is not considered an RJ ... yet.

But i''m sure that Mesa''s looked at the idea. And ALPA never met a concession they didnt like... so who knows!

 

[PITbull]

----------------
On 6/15/2003 12:22:10 PM Furloughedagain wrote:

PRN Newswire: US Airways Express to Acquire 100 Airbus 330-300 RJ''s.


US Airways CEO David Seigel stated during a press conference Friday, "I am pleased to announce that the further sacrifices of the US Airways employees have made it possible for us to launch this fleet of widebody regional jets. We intend to start service to a variety of both trans-atlantic, and trans-pacific destinations with this revolutionary new product."

US Airways Express operates over 400 regional jets from 32 through 200+ seats to over 200 markets worldwide in support of US Airways 70 aircraft mainline fleet.



----------------​

Told you guys...Siegel stole the 5% from its employees and now he is running to the candy store shopping for a "#### load" of them their tinker toy jets.

 

[Stick-n-Rudder]

This just in:

Question: Perhaps you can validate a rumor spreading around. I have heard that Jet BLue is operating their Airbus aircraft lease free and Airbus is providing free maintenance. Also, JFK provided them with no cost/low cost gates. Any of this true?

Answer: Details of the contractual agreement between Airbus and JetBlue are proprietary information and are not included in the financial reports released to the public. Specifics of this agreement are filed separately with the Securities Exchange Commission pursuant to a request for confidential treatment pursuant to Rule 24b-2 of the SEC Act of 1934, as amended.

However, the following extracts from JetBlue''s recent 10K filing may be helpful in answering your questions.

Regarding aircraft acquisitions

"We typically finance our aircraft through either secured or lease financing. At December 31, 2002, we operated a fleet of 37 Airbus A320 aircraft, of which 16 are financed under operating leases with the remaining 21 financed by secured debt. At December 31, 2002, financing in the form of operating leases had been arranged for the first six deliveries scheduled for 2003. Although we believe that debt and/or lease financing should be available for our remaining aircraft deliveries, we cannot make assurances that we will be able to secure financing on terms acceptable to us, if at all. While these financings may or may not result in an increase in liabilities on our balance sheet, our fixed costs will increase significantly regardless of the financing method ultimately chosen. To the extent we cannot secure financing, we may required to modify our aircraft acquisition plans to incur higher than anticipated financing costs."

Regading maintenance costs:

"Because the average age of our aircraft is 15.5 months, our aircraft require less maintenance now than they will in the future. We also currently incur lower maintenance expenses because most of the parts on our aircraft are under multi-year warranties. Our maintenance costs will increase on an absolute basis, on a per seat mile basis and as a percentage of our operating expenses, as our fleet ages and these warranties expire.
Although we cannot accurately predict how much our maintenance costs will increase in the future, we expect that they will increase significantly."

Regarding JFK gates:

"We currently operate from Terminal 6 at JFK under an expired permit from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Our permit could be terminated at any time upon 30 day''s notice and alternate gate space may not be available on favorable terms, or at all. Although we are in the process of finalizing a long-term lease agreement through November 2006 with the Port Authority, we cannot assure you that we will be able to execute a lease agreement. Since JFK is our principal base of operations, our inability to maintain an adequate number of gates would harm our business".

Mor regarding JFK gates:

We also checked with the Port Authority of NY & NJ regarding your question. JetBlue is paying fees at the same rate as the other airlines at JFK in similar facilities. JetBlue paid fees from the commencement of their servise to JFK, and they have not received any special discounts or waivers".

 

[LavMan]

jetBlue has a 5-year $10 million contract with EADS Aeroframe Services in Lake Charles, LA to perform the scheduled maintence.

 

[737nCH11]

Can you say PeopleExpress?

 

[Busdrvr]

Stick and Rudder,

Question: If JetBlue considers it''s "new fleet" as one of it''s strengths, why do the depreciate them over such a long period of time? Jetblue uses straightline depreciation over a term of 25 years with a residual value of 20% (despite average usage of 12.9 hours a day, or 120,000 hours after 25 years)?

Why does Jetblue chose to defer the balance sheet expenses of future MX that accrues with every hour the jets are flown?

Answer: Depreciating the jets over 20 years with a much more reasonable residual value of 10%, and accounting for MX costs in line with SWA (one fleet type, outsourced lowest bidder, no expensive to maintain TV''s in every seat) would have resulted in an operating profit of HALF last years numbers. That would essentially double the PE and send unsophisticated investors scrambling, and destroy a large part of employee copmpensation, Stock options.

If Jet blue operates a primarily point to poin route structure, how is it possible that they lose as many (or more) bags per boarded pax as airlines with complicated route structures? Why have they gone from #1 to number 7 in on-time arrivals? Why do they have a complaint rate neary 3 times that of SWA (despite being the industry darling) Will operational performance continue to deteriorate as they expand? Will they possibly be able to compete with a slave labor regional carriers with equivilent equipment into a fortress hub, and the revenue premium it provides? Questions, questions....

 

[LambertMan]

So lets see here....first of all MHT seems to be in the works, along with DFW, STL, CLT, FNT or DTW, and a chicago region airport. It''s just a matter of how soon.