Northwest

NEW YORK, Jul 3, 2003 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Beginning in September, JetBlue Airways (JBLU, Trade), New York's low-fare airline, will provide two inches more legroom for most customers without changing its fare structure.

By taking out one row of seats, the airline will extend seat pitch (the space from the back of one seat to the back of the seat behind it) to 34 inches throughout their Airbus fleet, with the exception of nine rows near the front of the cabin which will remain at 32 inches. With the new configuration, JetBlue's A320 aircraft will now comprise 156 seats, down from 162 (102 seats now will have 34 inches of pitch while 54 seats will remain at 32 inches).

"We've always offered an award-winning and very comfortable product but now we've figured out a way to give more customers even more room without changing our fare structure," said David Neeleman, JetBlue's Chairman and CEO. "This way about two-thirds of the aircraft will have 34 inches of pitch, making it the most generous legroom of any low-fare airline. We're always looking to give our customers more: more comfort, more service, more value, and more entertainment. And travelers can expect more innovation from JetBlue in the months to come."

The first aircraft with the additional legroom is expected to be in service starting September 6. The airline plans to have completed work across the fleet by November 19. JetBlue expects the improvement to its product offering will further enhance its brand and, together with yield management, will strengthen the airline's ability to offset any potential decline in operating revenues resulting from the reduction in seat capacity.

JetBlue is a low-fare, low-cost passenger airline, which provides high-quality customer service. JetBlue operates a fleet of 44 new Airbus A320 aircraft and is scheduled to place into service another nine A320s by the end of 2003. The airline recently placed an order for 100 EMBRAER 190 aircraft with options for an additional 100. The first EMBRAER 190 is scheduled to be delivered in mid 2005. All JetBlue aircraft feature roomy all-leather seats each equipped with free live satellite television, offering up to 24 channels of DIRECTV(R) Programming at every seat.**

From its base at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport, JetBlue flies to: Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando, Tampa and West Palm Beach, FL; Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, NY; Long Beach, Oakland, Ontario, and San Diego, CA; Burlington, VT; Denver, CO; Las Vegas, NV; New Orleans, LA; Salt Lake City, UT; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Seattle, WA. From Washington DC, the airline serves Fort Lauderdale, FL, and Long Beach and Oakland, CA. From Long Beach, CA, the airline serves Atlanta, GA, Oakland, CA, Las Vegas, NV, Ft. Lauderdale, FL and Salt Lake City, UT.

With JetBlue, all seats are assigned, all travel is ticketless, all fares are one-way, and a Saturday night stay is never required. For more information, schedules and fares, please visit www.jetblue.com or call JetBlue reservations at 1-800-JETBLUE (538-2583). This press release, as well as past press releases, can be found on www.jetblue.com.

R. Minor

Go Blue.... jetBlue...

__________________
Ron ~ MCO

Fly Airbus Jets...

Travelin' Man

So what they are saying, some folks are getting 2" of extra leg room and some folks are just s*hit out of luck. Wow, that seems fair.

This spells the beginning of the end for JetBlue. Yep, the marketing department has taken over. Look for more stupid decisions. Cutting capacity for an extra 2" of leg room is dumb. American spent how much money changing their fleet, losing money, then going back to their old set up? Man, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Gordon Werner

yea ... why this though"

are they tring to train people to want the back of the plane?

NYCAAer

Where is B6GUY? Maybe he can clue us in on what's happening. I'd like to know how they'll determine who gets stuck in the 1st 9 rows? "Sorry, your fare was lower, so you have to sit where there's less legroom."

So far American is going back on its "More Room in Coach" program on its 757s which serve leisure markets in the U.S., and A300s on leisure markets in the Caribbean.

Starliner

This one I can't figure out either. Why only the back part of the plane? Are they going to introduce a "Premium" discount fare versus a "Regular" discount fare? That could be a nightmare.

Yukon 880

On the surface, this seems pretty strange. AA's "More Room thru Coach" was most likely a way to get seats off the airplane at a time when demand was falling off and load factor was falling. At the same time, the folks in Marketing can introduce this new "More Room..." jazz and differentiate themselves from the competition. Then it looks like AA is doing something great for the travelling public. Let me know if I am too far off-base here, Kevin.

So now JetBlue comes along and announces the same thing. Perhaps load factors are a little less than what they had been. Maybe some of the longer range routes they are starting to fly or are about ready to inaugurate are putting their version of the A-320 very near it's maximum range for a full payload.

The really odd thing is the location of the rows with the extra legroom. Why are the first 9 rows remaining at a 32" pitch?

I wonder if they have particular weight and balance issues with the A-320 at or near max payload. Perhaps B6Guy can help us out here.



Don

__________________
Fly Delta's Big Jets!

Eddy Two

I am going to take an absolute stab in the dark, but it COULD have something to do with why this is happening.

Is it possible that changing the pitch of the front seats could screw up the positioning of Exit row seating? Of course, it's no good having a row of seat RIGHT infront of an exit door.

Perhaps by leaving THESE seats as they are, this problem is resolved.

Tracon Doug

I think you may be on to something, Eddy. Your scenario fits precisely with an A320 single cabin seating chart.....

__________________
Piss On Noise Abatement!

Doug Kenaga

Portland TRACON
Dallas/Fort Worth TRACON
SoCal TRACON
Los Angeles TRACON

NYCAAer

You guys are right. I just read at Reuters that is the reason for keeping the 1st 9 rows with standard seating. It does create sort of a 2-tier seating arrangement.

Don, "More Room in Coach" was done not because the loads were falling off, but as an actual marketing ploy to attract higher-paying passengers, business travelers who may fly in coach, but would be willing to pay more for more room. The company literature at the time said that any losses from 2 rows of seats being removed would be more than made up by the higher fares. So far, the MD-80s and 738s in the domestic business markets and international 767-300s and 777s will still have more room.

And at JetBlue, their loads are higher than ever, so I don't think it's due to drop off in loads. I'm surprised B6GUY hasn't chimed in on this one.

Yukon 880

Well Eddy, looks like you take the cake on this one, or was it Cornbread! That makes so much sense, I would have never thought of it. Then again, I collect a paycheck from an airline so you guys should not expect too much of me.

Thanks for the clarification Kevin. Interesting marketing by American to woo the higher yield customer. And the other airlines have always attempted to do the same. One approach used by NW and TWA, for instance, was to offer a first class seat for the price of a full coach ticket. I believe NW still publishes the "Up Front" fare in most markets that have a connection or an intermediate stop enroute.


But why is JetBlue making this change now? The press release says that the fare structure is not changing. That would indicate that the loss of the revenue of six seats per flight is something that they are willing to lose.

Any thoughts???


Don

__________________
Fly Delta's Big Jets!

Piarco

I was one who intentially took AA when traveling coach just for this extra room.

Was very disappointed to hear that the 757's will be reconfigured. Hardly ever flew AA's A300's, but the 757's fly substantially more than just "leisure" markets (Chicago-Orlando or New York-San Juan). I've used their 757's DFW-SFO, ORD-SFO, SJC-DFW...these aren't the typical "leisure" routes.

Eddy Two

Well Don, JetBlue like to be in the news... Hell, any airline does if it's favourable for them.

While JetBlue is experiencing some superb load factors, it very very rarely operates a flight at 100% capacity. General JetBlue loads are in the mid-eighties, as far as I am aware. This gives them the ability to do a few things :

a ) remove a row of seating from the aircraft allowing them to promote the fact that they are offering more legroom on their flights (good publicity, to say the least).

b ) remove a row of seats that might otherwise fly empty (though the seats would, admittedly, be scattered around the aircraft). They don't actually lose anything by doing this as these seats would normally represent excess capacity.

and finally, and possibly more importantly,

c ) suddenly, a 90% load factor becomes 95% or even 100% as there are fewer seats on the plane to fill but loads remain high, which is always a great thing to tell shareholders and prospective investors.

Someone at JetBlue has their thinking cap on VERY tightly and they're making all the right decisions (well, maybe not the ERJ!).

nutsXplanes

in case of a emergency landing and if you're in the back of the plane you have more chances to make it alive...or at least to die better rested. closer to take a dump, longer time to take a look to a gorgeous female passenger and after landing you have more time to look for a near mint safety card, etc.

Yukon 880

You are right on the money!
I know that they must have done a great deal of research before deciding on this change. I am sure that you have hit the high points and the increase in load factor is going to look very, very good on Wall Street.

I am not sure how I feel about the ERJ's yet, but with an airplane like that, they could start service just about anywhere in North America that they wanted to go, and have a really good shot at making money.

Time will tell.

Don

__________________
Fly Delta's Big Jets!

b737gearboy

The exit row seats cannot be moved so more people get extra leg room by taking the last row out. The real reason driving this decision is the increase in weight per person by the FAA. It's quite common to block seats in the winter anyway so it's no big deal. Furthermore, airlines are required to have the ability to carry one wheelchair in the cabin.

__________________
GO BUCKEYES!!!! NATIONAL CHAMPS!! O----H----I----O