More Leg room on Jetblue

[h2opunk1822]

On Thursday we will publicly announce our plan to remove a row of seats from our A320 fleet, generating $30 million in net savings over five years while simultaneously enhancing the JetBlue Experience by providing Customers with at least 36 inches of pitch in the first 11 rows of our A320s and at least 34 inches in all other seats. The aircraft modification will begin in January and is expected to be completed by March 2007.!!

[Mellyrose]

Wow, sweet! :)

[T-Bird76]

Interesting move and certainly a comfortable one but with B6 barely in the black I'm curious to see the revenue impact. I'm a bit confused how you save 30 million when you are throwing away potential revenue generating income. They already have more room in the back of the plane which most people know about not sure if this is really needed?

[h2opunk1822]

im just as confused as you as how you make money buy taking out 6 paying customers... the only logical thing i can come up with is the whole weight and balance issue w/ using fuel but i really dont see where you can get 30 million from that?... b/c i know jetblue is in "rtp" mode with everything

[Midnight Mike]

Interesting move and certainly a comfortable one but with B6 barely in the black I'm curious to see the revenue impact. I'm a bit confused how you save 30 million when you are throwing away potential revenue generating income. They already have more room in the back of the plane which most people know about not sure if this is really needed?

Jetblue is not 100% on all flights, so, Jetblue is improving the Jetblue experience even further hoping to lure even more people on the flights.

Also:
Less Seats = Less Weight = Less Fuel.

With increased competition, the airlines need to do more to separate themselves from the pack.

This could work in Jetblue's favor....

[Alex T]

Juat read how the savings are factored.

By removing one row, they can remove a F/A, which then saves up to 6 million dollars a year not having to pay for the 4th F/A. 6 times 5 is the 30 million where Tom and the other was seeing.

Makes more sense now.

Alex

[AA 777]

By removing the row they are able to take off a flight attendant. So from 4 on every flight they now only need 3 - now that saves money!!

-Matt

[Matt Molnar]

That's pretty cool for passengers and the company. Not cool if you're a flight attendant, in which case I suppose you'll be getting a 10-25% pay cut (factoring in seniority, how many flights you normally work, service expansions, etc).

[Ari707]

they claim it won't effect the f/a's as they will be adding more flights

[Matt Molnar]

they claim it won't effect the f/a's as they will be adding more flights

I suppose over a couple of years it will even out, but this coming year they're only adding about 14% more flights, many of which will be on the E190s which require only two attendants (correct?).

[LGB]

Great, more cargo and mail on long haul flights.

[Iberia A340-600]

Great, more cargo and mail on long haul flights.

Because jet Blue does have a lot of long-haul flights...

[Midnight Mike]

JetBlue says more legroom means lower costs
http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehy ... ews&rpc=44

Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:28 AM ET

NEW YORK, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Discount carrier JetBlue Airways Corp. <JBLU.O> said on Thursday it will remove a row of seats on its Airbus planes, lowering costs and giving some seats four inches of extra legroom.

Six-year-old JetBlue will take out six seats on each of its 96 Airbus A320 planes, reducing the number of seats to 150.

The New York-based carrier said the lower seat count will allow it to reduce in-flight staff to three from four. This is because Federal Aviation Administration guidelines requires airlines to have one crew member per 50 passengers.

With fewer flight attendants and less weight on board, JetBlue expects the change to save it $30 million over five years. It said the figure includes lost revenue opportunities from the fewer seats available for sale, but doesn't include any benefits that may come from customers appreciating the extra space.

JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin said the lower number of flight attendants on planes won't result in layoffs at the fast-growing airline, instead staff will be redeployed as necessary.

The carrier expects the seat removals to be completed by March 2007.

By taking out the row, JetBlue passengers in the front of the cabin (rows 1 to 11), which is where the seats will be removed, will be 36 inches away from the seat in front of them, compared to 32 inches now.

Seats in the back of the plane will still be 34 inches away from the ones in front of them. This is because exit rows are fixed.

Rows of economy-class seats are generally 31 inches apart at major U.S. carriers, but AMR Corp.'s <AMR.N> American Airlines has economy-class rows that are between 33 and 35 inches apart, according to airline guide Skytrax.

JetBlue won't charge extra for the roomier seats, but it will have to retrain its customers to reserve seats in the front rather than the back of the plane, said JetBlue's Baldwin.

[FlyingColors]

With all due respect...
I HATE the jetBlue name and color scheme.

But LOVE the product!
I can't fly on CO anymore after experiencing jetBlue.
And now the best is better yet, fantastic!

[T-Bird76]

jetBlue's product is fantastic and this will make it even better but they need to get their on-time performance up to par. Every time I fly them which has been increasing in the last two months, they have been late and I don't mean 20 mins late I mean hours late. Three, four, and six hour delays are just unacceptable. I know one of the reasons is JFK and the Euro rush. No reason why JFK doesn't use more then one runway for take offs during that time. 31R arrivals aren't that frequent where airlines on that side of JFk can't use that runway. The FAA needs to get off its ass and redesign JFKs approach and departure procedures.