New York-based JetBlue Airways expects to launch international service from Long Beach in 2018, following a study earlier this year that boosted its case for overseas flights from the Southern California airport.
JetBlue's senior vice-president of airline planning Scott Laurence said during the airline's investor day on 13 December that Long Beach international service will "likely" come in 2018. "We are unlikely to see that in 2017," he told analysts.
The airline has long lobbied for international flights at Long Beach, one of its focus cities. But it has encountered some opposition from city officials and residents who are concerned over noise pollution. The airport operates under a noise ordinance which restricts it to 50 flights daily.
In October, a study commissioned by the city's council found that international service will do more good than harm. The city council is scheduled to vote on adding international flights in late January, following a meeting on 13 December, reports Long Beach media.
As the future for international service in Long Beach plays out, JetBlue has reiterated its focus on growth at Boston and Fort Lauderdale in the coming years. The airline says it still sees plenty of room to grow at both of its focus cities.
BOSTON
In Boston, JetBlue is "thrilled" so far with the performance of its Mint premium product, which debuted from the city in March and is now offered on flights to Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Laurence says the Boston Mint routes have actually performed better compared to the New York transcontinental routes that first received Mint. The airline is seeing a double-digit margin difference operating Mint-configured Airbus A321s on the Boston routes, compared to deploying single class A321s, he adds.
The deployment of Mint is part of a years-long investment by the airline in Boston, which is now the carrier's most profitable city. Calling the city a "business-oriented market", Laurence notes that it is difficult to stimulate leisure demand. Instead, the airline is continuing to focus on connecting large local markets on a nonstop basis.
JetBlue
JetBlue will begin Boston-Atlanta service in March 2017, resuming flights on a route it last operated 14 years ago. But beyond Atlanta, the airline still has 11 popular destinations that it will not serve out of Boston. These include seven US cities and four European destinations. The largest unserved market for Boston that will be the most relevant for JetBlue is London, notes Laurence.
The airline has not made a secret of its European ambitions, which would require it to purchase longer range aircraft. An order announced earlier this year for 30 additional Airbus aircraft come with the option of switching 15 of those jets to the A321LR, which will fulfil JetBlue's transatlantic dreams. The airline has until the end of 2017 to decide if it wants to switch, and Laurence says the airline is still in the process of learning about the aircraft.
FORT LAUDERDALE
At Fort Lauderdale, JetBlue plans to predominantly focus on international growth. Laurence notes that while the south Florida airport is a more mature market for JetBlue and has not seen the level of investment that it had rolled out in Boston, it still sees Fort Lauderdale as an underserved market.
JetBlue has said it plans to grow to 140 daily flights at Fort Lauderdale in the coming years from about 100 currently.
Like Boston, JetBlue will focus growth in Fort Lauderdale on serving the local market, differentiating itself from Miami airport where passengers are usually connecting onto international routes.
JetBlue will start flights to Aruba in January and Long Beach in March, and recently launched flights to Cuba. It has also committed to launching service to Atlanta from Fort Lauderdale in the second half of 2017.
JetBlue
Of the top 50 destinations out of South Florida, JetBlue is in only 29 of them. Among these are the South American cities of Buenos Aires, Santiago and Sao Paulo, based on a slide shown by Laurence.
These cities are out of the range of JetBlue's current operational fleet, which Laurence acknowledges. However, he says the airline believes these cities "could work very well for us".
It is not immediately clear if the A321LR would allow JetBlue to serve these cities if it orders the aircraft. The A321LR is marketed to operate routes of up to 4,000nm (7,400km), but JetBlue chief executive Robin Hayes told FlightGlobal in March that the aircraft will have minimal impact on its plans to grow into South America.
“With the geography of the Amazon, it doesn’t get us much more large markets into range," he said then.
Airlines that operate from South Florida to the three Latin American cities currently all deploy widebodies on the routes, FlightGlobal schedules data show.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
