JetBlue growth turns to Mint, non-NYC bases

The sky remains the limit for JetBlue Airways, which plans continued growth in flights from its bases in Boston, Fort Lauderdale and Long Beach, Calif. Also in growth mode at JetBlue: the airline's premium Mint service that the airline offers on certain cross-country flights and on some routes to the Caribbean.

The expansion has altered JetBlue’s reliance on New York JFK. While that airport remains JetBlue's busiest airport, the airline is now more diversified across its other bases. Speaking during the carrier's third-quarter earnings call,  CEO Robin Hayes said JFK flights now account for only about 40% of the JetBlue's available "seat miles" -- a standard industry measure of capacity. That's down from 60% a decade ago, when the carrier was fledgling six-year-old start-up carrier.

New York's declining proportion of JetBlue's capacity comes as it has built up its bases elsewhere.

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“Over the last decade, in an ever-competitive industry, we steadily built a No. 1 position in both Boston and Fort Lauderdale,” Haye said. “As we’ve diversified our network and product, we’ve also diversified our customer base.”

Mint began this month from Boston to Los Angeles, and bookings are exceeding expectations, Hayes said. The airline expects to launch Mint from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles in March and to San Francisco in May. A fourth daily flight from Boston to San Francisco is expected to begin in July.

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Perhaps underscoring Mint's success, two of the routes where Mint is offered -- between JFK and both Los Angeles or San Francisco -- have the highest revenue per available seat mile for the airline, according to Marty St. George, executive vice president for commercial and planning.

Those routes, along with the Boston to San Francisco route, hadn’t even been among the top 10 before Mint was offered but now are, he said. The advantage is both in the higher-price seats as well as the greater frequency of flights, he said.

“We’re seeing impact not just in the front of the airplane, it’s in the coach cabin, too,” St. George said.

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A lot of the change is coming from business travelers, though the airline said remains dependent on leisure travelers for the foreseeable future. JetBlue doesn’t break out Mint revenue, and the seats are only 0.5% of the airline’s capacity, but it has had outsized impact, officials said.

“I still don’t think we’re going to be in a position to call ourselves a business airline for a very long time,” St. George said. “Leisure – visiting friends and relatives – that is still the core of our customer base and I think it will be for a very long time. But I will say that our ability to capture business customers and especially coach business customers was the unexpected good guy of the Mint growth.”

Growth beyond New York JFK

While New York JFK has proved to be a successful hub for JetBlue, flights at the New York airport are capped by slot constraints. Generally, that means JetBlue cannot add more flights from JFK without somehow acquiring slots from another airline. Slots rarely change hands voluntarily at JFK, something that's likely pushed JetBlue's recent growth to newer bases.

St. George said JetBlue is on track to grow its fast-growing Boston base to 200 departures per day within a few years, up from the current 140. As part of that, up to six daily flights to LaGuardia will launch next week, he said. In March, Boston will get up to five daily flights to Atlanta as JetBlue returns the Georgia city for the first time in more than 13 years.

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“Our growth strategy in Boston continues to pay off,” St. George said. “These are markets that our Boston business customers have been asking us to fly for some time.”

St. George declined to offer specific details on anticipated Atlanta routes from Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and JFK because they are outside the airline’s sale window, he said.

The number of daily destinations from Fort Lauderdale is expected to grow to 140 within a few years, he said.

“In Fort Lauderdale, our brand of product resonates very well,” St. George said.

In Long Beach, an airport feasibility study found that an international terminal likely wouldn’t violate a local noise ordinance, St. George said.

“We will continue to work hard to bring a new Customs facility to the airport,” he said.

JetBlue also plans to use its full allotment of flight rights by early next year at Long Beach, where schedules also restricted by slots. Previously, the airline had not been using all of the slots it had been awarded at Long Beach. But, in August, JetBlue announced plans for those unused slots -- a move that came shortly after rival Southwest was given temporary access to some that had been going unused.

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JetBlue plans to resume service from Long Beach to San Jose, Calif., in January, and increase flights to Las Vegas, San Francisco and Salt Lake City, he said. The airline plans 35 daily departures from Long Beach, he said.

To Cuba, JetBlue was the first U.S. carrier to fly to the nation since the resumption of scheduled U.S. service was allowed. That came Aug. 31 on a flight from Fort Lauderdale to Santa Clara. Three other destinations will be added in the fourth quarter, including Havana -- which will become JetBlue's 100th overall destination.

“We believe we are in a great position to be the carrier of choice given our strong presence in Florida, longstanding Cuban charter experience and our success in similar markets, such as the Dominican Republic,” Hayes said.

Contributing: Ben Mutzabaugh

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