Right size

Sometimes when airlines downsize or shrink they call it 'right-sizing'. But a big move by jetBlue with its new smaller airplanes may be just the right way to use phrase. The low-cost leader has come out with the first routes for its Embraer E-190s and these are no small plans for the small planes. The 100-seaters are a turning point for low-cost carries, which some cynics such as those at American Airlines have begun calling 'LMO's or Large Market Operators to chide the category for its focus on bigger cities like Boston instead slightly out-of-the-way places like Burlington. (For those who don't place it, it's the diminutive capital city of Vermont, a small state with a big voice in politics.)

JetBlue plans new daily flights starting between November and March between JFK hub, where it adds seven more gates to a total of 21, and: Austin, Texas, with three daily frequencies; four new daily flights to Richmond, Va.; and increased frequencies to Buffalo, N.Y. and Burlington, Vt. The new nonstop routes will be flown with Embraer 190s, only the second type jetBlue flies in addition to its 156-seat A320s, of which it now has 82 and will add three more by year end, plus 16 next year. The Embraers, of which it takes eight this year and 18 next year, or one new one every 20 days, will be the first JetBlue aircraft with XM Satellite Radio as well as the live on-board DirecTV that has become a jetBlue trademark.

The boldest Embraer move: JetBlue will become a challenger on the high-frequency New York/Boston market with 10 flights a day between JFK and Logan. The move pits the carrier as a major competitor to Delta and US Airways in the high-frequency, high-yield shuttle markets between the two cities. Although the traditional shuttles use New York's LaGuardia airport, closer-in and favoured by business flyers headed for Wall Street or midtown, the move gives JetBlue much connectivity at its JFK hub and may be as much of a challenge to Amtrak's high speed Boston/New York Acela trains as to the shuttles, says Velocity Group consultant Doug Abbey.

Along with the Embraer expansion comes a major expansion of jetBlue service from Boston Logan with new daily service to Austin,; Nassau, The Bahamas; New York (JFK); Richmond, and West Palm Beach, plus connections to 27 jetBlue cities, including 15 new connecting cities from Boston. By next April, the airline will have tripled the number of destinations out of Boston. Boston's a rare bean: it's not dominated by any one major carrier, notes Abbey, a regionals expert. American and Delta have both made bids to increase there, especially as one-time Boston powerhouse US Airways recedes, but the Embraers will be "a game changer" at contested airports like Logan and at long-lucrative mid-sized markets like Austin, he says.

Technorati tag: JetBlue Airlines