(See: background info)Īlmost immediately after Alaska Air Group emerged as the winner against jetBlue in the bid to acquire Virgin America, jetBlue rolled out a blueprint for Mint’s expansion in the 2017 to 2018 time frame. Mint service to the Caribbean allows jetBlue to gain some additional utilisation of the Mint aircraft and capture a bit more revenue on those flights as some passengers decide to start their holidays by upgrading to the Mint product. Since Mint’s initial debut in New York transcontinental markets jetBlue has bolstered Mint frequencies between JFK and Los Angeles and San Francisco, and also added Mint flights from Boston to those cities.Īdditionally, jetBlue has added Mint flights on some weekend services to the Caribbean from New York and Boston. Source: CAPA - Centre for Aviation and OAG jetBlue's Plan B to Alaska and Virgin America's merger mean doubling down the exposure JetBlue Airways schedule by class of seat - one-way weekly departing seats: to 1 See related report: United Airlines’ moves in New York reflect the heightened competition in the New York marketĭata from CAPA and OAG show, for the week of to 1: 3,378, or 0.4%, of jetBlue’s departing one-way system-wide seats are dedicated to its business class. At one point Virgin America estimated that jetBlue represented 17% of the premium seats in the JFK-Los Angeles market, and fares had dropped 30% to 40%. The transition by all of its transcontinental competitors to lie-flat seats also made Virgin America’s once innovative first class look outdated, and after Mint’s debut Virgin America felt some pressure on its financial performance between its two largest routes from New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Mint’s success was arguably one reason why United decided to drop premium service from JFK to Los Angeles and San Francisco and consolidate all of its premium transcontinental service at its Newark hub. Mint has shaken up the transcontinental market, making its competitors take pauseĭuring the last two years Mint has been a market disrupter. During early Apr-2016 jetBlue increased Mint fares in those markets by between USD25 and USD75. In Apr-2016 jetBlue executives stated that its routes between New York JFK and Los Angeles and San Francisco during the last 12 months had generated double-digit revenue each month. “We were faced with a choice of either significantly reducing capacity in these markets or even pulling out unless we fixed those results”, he added.
“If you think back to jetBlue before Mint, our margins between New York and Los Angeles and San Francisco were well below the system average,” the jetBlue CEO, Robin Hayes, recently said. jetBlue’s price point on the product is lower than those of the three large US network airlines, but that still allows jetBlue to enjoy a revenue premium of its own. The Mint cabin on a dedicated fleet of 11 Airbus narrowbodies features 16 flatbed seats, four of which are closed-off private suites. That left jetBlue with an all-coach cabin – an undesirable product for routes that garnered ample levels of high-yielding business travelers. During the past few years the three large US airlines – America, Delta and United – have introduced lie-flat seats in those markets, while Virgin America had a dedicated first class with reclining seats, which is now arguably obsolete. Mint was conceptualised by jetBlue as a mechanism to capture revenue that it was losing to competitors on key and competitive US transcontinental markets between New York JFK and San Francisco and Los Angeles. Mint helps jetBlue turn its performance around in strategic US transcontinental markets But with Mint’s current track record, jetBlue is not surprisingly remaining open-minded about its scope. There is much for jetBlue to digest as it works to roll out Mint in several additional markets.
During that time jetBlue will leverage its strengths to inject a premium product into some of Alaska and Virgin America’s important transcontinental markets. jetBlue is undertaking the spread of Mint as Alaska and Virgin America work to gain approval for their merger, then to embark on a years-long integration process of the two. In an increasingly vanilla US marketplace, largely driven by Wall Street analysyt demands for short term profits, Mint’s success has beaten jetBlue’s own expectations, and now the airline is planning a massive expansion of Mint routes from its three largest bases – New York, Boston and Fort Lauderdale. The company is the only low cost airline in the Americas that offers a dedicated premium product, and the success of Mint has even surprised jetBlue’s senior management. Nearly two years ago jetBlue debuted its Mint premium product, which was a bold move for a low cost, hybrid-like North American airline.
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