This is a guest blog from Dan Webb, who writes his blog Things In The Sky. Here are his thoughts on JetBlue at Washington’s National Airport:
Many thanks to David for inviting me to share a guest post while he’s busy having an awesome time in Mexico. In my blog, I often enjoy writing about and analyzing airline strategy. So, when JetBlue announced its schedule for Washington-National Airport, I figured it’d be a perfect topic.
The carrier announced that it will begin service from Boston to Washington’s National Airport seven times a day, in addition to one flight each to Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, all starting on November 1. This move is part of JetBlue’s recent announcement of a partnership with American Airlines, which includes an interline agreement between the two carriers, and two slot swaps. JetBlue is giving some JFK slots to American, and in exchange American is giving JetBlue eight slots at National. JetBlue received a ninth slot after petitioning the FAA for the use of an unused slot pair. JetBlue stands to grow more at National as well, if the FAA approves the slot swap compromise suggested by US Airways and Delta, part of which includes US Airways transferring five slots to JetBlue.
So why does JetBlue want to fly Boston to National? Because fares there are frickin’ high! I delved into some DOT air fare data for the third quarter of last year, the latest data that is currently available. I was surprised to find that JetBlue had the highest market share in the Washington market, with a 32.2% market share and an average fare of $118.15. But the data set I looked at was for all of Washington, so both Dulles and National were included. Fortunately, another data set divides it by airport, so I looked in there, and threw Baltimore into the mix as well. It becomes apparent why JetBlue would like to get in on the action here. The airline is hoping that lower fares (they advertise that theirs will be 73% lower than before they announced the route) will stimulate demand.
So I’m currently wondering a few things. First, what does this mean for JetBlue’s existing service at other airports? The airline has been flying to Dulles for awhile, and started flying to Baltimore after Southwest announced the route, and AirTran is a player there as well. As one might expect, fares have been pretty low. Right now, JetBlue is planning to maintain its service to these airports. In November, flights to Dulles go from seven to six dailies, but the airline tells me that is part of a normal seasonal reduction, and the airline is actually flying one more winter flight to Dulles than it did last year.
I’m also wondering how US Airways will respond here ’“ if at all. The airline is currently running hourly flights between Boston and Washington with Airbus A319 aircraft, so its schedule is definitely more convenient than JetBlue’s. And JetBlue isn’t throwing a huge amount of capacity into the market with seven frequencies, and plus all of its flying out of National will be with Embraer 190s. Right now, we haven’t seen US Airways make a move ’“ it hasn’t matched JetBlue’s fares at all here, which is odd in comparison to its quick matching of Southwest’s Boston-Philadelphia fare. So we’ll have to see what happens with fares and if US Airways thinks having A319s is still worth it. (LaGuardia service is now flown with Embraer 190s). Perhaps some of the flying here is by business travelers whose companies have contracts with US Airways, but we’ll see.
Meanwhile, there are a couple of other carriers on the route. American flies ERJs, and Delta flies a mix of mainline and regional aircraft. It will be interesting to see what they do. They could have some decent corporate flying here as well, but I wonder how they will adjust with a new competitor on the route. When JetBlue (and Southwest) announced Baltimore flying, Delta quickly dropped the route.
Whether it be changes by JetBlue, US Airways, American, or Delta, we still have plenty of time to sit and watch. Since we’re just about six months away from the start of service, there’s still plenty of time for the airlines to adjust their schedules as they analyze bookings.
But enough about Boston. Let’s quickly talk about Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando. Fares in these markets are not nearly as high as with Boston-Washington, and the differences between fares at National, Dulles, and Baltimore are far less. That can probably be traced to the presence of low cost carriers at National on these routes ’“ Spirit flies to Fort Lauderdale and AirTran flies to Orlando, and US Airways flies to both. So why fly there? One reason is probably connecting opportunities ’“ both flights offer easy connections to JetBlue’s Caribbean destinations. And I do think JetBlue could compete product-wise here. For example, I would say that JetBlue’s domestic product is far better than Spirit, so informed consumers might be willing to pay a bit more to fly on JetBlue.
On a side note, this move by JetBlue should send a message to the DOT/FAA when it comes to the slot swap proposed by US Airways and Delta. This move by JetBlue and American shows that carriers can and will engage in slot transactions on their own, without government interference.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my post. If you enjoyed it, it’s pretty normal for my blog. I’d love for you to visit at ThingsIntheSky.com!
The Boeing 747-8 is a big plane and requires a heck of a lot of paint. Check out this time-lapse video from Boeing showing the process in a which the 747-8 goes through to look pretty.
AirAsia Airbus A320 painted in Williams F1 team livery (9M-AFW). Check out those sweet wheels.
When I first saw this livery, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. After making a call-out on Twitter, I found out it was a special Formula 1 livery, since AirAsia sponsors a team.
Air Asia as a sponsor of the Williams F1 team uniquely paint their Airbus A320 to look like an F1 car that used by at&t Williams F1 team.
@jbarrett88 on Twitter commented, “it looks like the free market just threw up all over it.” Heh, it is hard to disagree, but it is a unique livery that definitely gets some attention.
AirAsia was founded in 1993 and is based out of Kuala Lumpur. It is another one of those low-cost, low-frills airlines and serves over 60 destinations with a fleet of almost 90 aircraft.
Continental Airlines ERJ-145 -- First time I will get to fly this aircraft type!
I am once again sitting at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. This time, I am on my way to Mazatlan, Mexico for some much needed R&R. This means I will not be too active on the blog during this next week, but there will still be at least something posting once per day.
Knowing me, I will try my hardest to get to the internet and see what is going on and still blog (I love this stuff). But with working a full time job and running the blog (lots of work behind the scenes too), I really can use the vacation ;).
I am flying out on Continental Airlines and I am excited since this will be the first time I will ride an ERJ-145. Also, this might be the last time I get free food on a Continental flight to boot!
Actually set off the metal detector (forgot to take out my iPhone — oops). I was a little nervous since I have my AirlineReporter.com tags on my bags and did a pretty critical blog on the TSA yesterday — didn’t want to get a full pat-down (and luckily didn’t get one).
Don’t worry, you will get a full report once I return. Anyone know any good aviation related stuff near Mazatlan?
Boeing facility at Paine Field. Photo taken by me during my Boeing 787 interior tour.
When the Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner first took flight back in December 2009, there were those who questioned if Boeing really missed out on a customer relations opportunity.
Yes, Boeing had a live video feed on the internet and posted some wonderful photos and videos on their special newairplane.com website, but it still left some wanting more. People questioned why weren’t they on Twitter? Why didn’t they provide more for those that love Boeing? I somewhat agreed and felt that Boeing was making an effort, but was still distant from their fan base.
However, I think things are changing.
I have always been a frequent visitor to boeing.com, however I have been very impressed with their newer website newairplane.com. It isn’t just dry information that airlines or engineers might be interested in, but something that can really build passion for the Boeing brand. You can check out what new liveries will be on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, take a virtual tour of both the Boeing 787 or the Boeing 747, find lots of great multimedia, and much more. It looks like I am not the only fan. Bernard Choi, with Boeing Communications, tells me that newairplane.com gets about 5-6million page views each month. That alone is a great indication, people want a closer relationship to Boeing.
Boeing facility at Paine Field where the Boeing 767, 777, 747 and 787 are made.
Boeing has also stepped into the world of Twitter. They now have three accounts: @BoeingAirplanes, @BoeingCorporate, and @BoeingDefense. And really, they are doing an outstanding job, especially only being on it for about two weeks. This week, they had their first real test of social media and I think they passed.
John Windsor, who specializes in marketing and advertisement, blogged that his son sent a photo to Boeing of a new airplane with a pretty cold response. Boeing sent a canned reply stating they do not take any outside ideas and have destroyed his son’s information. Of course this is a form letter sent to anyone who submits an idea and they didn’t have a specialized form letter to reply to a child. Honestly, it made Boeing look like it has no compassion.
A few people Tweeted the blog and it got to Boeing. Boeing Tweeted, “The letter Mr. Winsor posted is, as he said, a required response. For kids, we can do better. We’ll work on it.” Cool. They could have defended their actions, but admit that it was not appropriate and they want to improve the way they do things.
Also, Boeing Corporate Communications director Todd Blecher, also made a comment on Mr. Windsor’s blog:
“Mr. Winsor…I think I can address your comments. As you state, we have to respond to the thousands of unsolicited ideas we receive in a way that protects us against possible infringement claims. Having said that, we can do better when the idea clearly comes from a child as enthusiastic as your son. We will work on this. I hope Harry remains fascinated by airplanes and grows up to be an airplane designer. To help him and others like him we maintain the following website. I hope he enjoys it.”
The Boeing 747-8 during taxi testing at Paine Field before its first flight.
To me, that is quite awesome. He made his comment right after I made mine and I like to think I am quite quick. With all the changes and this Twitter incident, I started to wonder if Boeing was trying to directly interact with customers more than they have in the past.
I decided to try and find out. I wrote to a few folks at Boeing and heard back from Todd Blecher (remember he is the Boeing Corporate Communications director that made the blog comment) very quickly. I asked if Boeing was consciously making an effort to connect better and how they were going to respond to Mr. Winsor’s son, Harry.
Blecher assured me that Boeing will be sending Harry some items and he actually spoke with him on the phone, thanking him for his drawing and he hopes when Harry grows up, he will design airplanes for Boeing.
He also confirmed my hunches that Boeing is making a real effort here. “We spent much of the past 12 months developing and now executing an approach to online communications that makes sense for Boeing and our audiences. We figured out what we could bring to the table and how we would be willing to engage. We drew inspiration from many areas, including Randy’s Journal, newairplane.com, our corporate advertising, and other organizations.”
They realize they are new to this game and the transition won’t happen overnight. “We are learning as we go but I have no doubt that are on a journey that will see us really change the way Boeing communicates…the bottom line is we’re changing.” When I asked Blecher about their future plans he told me they are looking at Facebook, thinking about a future mobile app and possibly even a Boeing TweetUp (where people on Twitter get together, ie Aviation Geekfest). Boeing talking about a TweetUp? That’s amazing.
Blecher realizes they might not make everyone happy. “Not everybody in our audiences will like our approach. But, to paraphrase Sinatra, we’re doing it our way because to try it any other way, to expect an organizational mindset to change overnight, is a sure way to set yourself up for a lot of frustration and aggravation and mistakes.” Even if they might make a few mistakes and frustrate a few people, I think it will be worth it in the long-run.
Who knows, if Boeing can really build that brand loyalty, maybe more people will be saying, “If it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t Going!”
