JetBlue continues growth in Boston

Having established itself as the largest carrier in Boston, JetBlue continues its growth there recently announcing new non-stop service to Phoenix, Arizona. Routes News examines Jetblue's network strategy in Boston

Boston Logan Airport, is currently home to 27 scheduled carriers offering 375,719 weekly seats and 93 destinations. Boston is just over half the size of nearby JFK, New York, which offers 627,929 weekly seats whilst Philadelphia also on the US east coast offering 438,092. JFK is currently served by 64 carriers and Philadelphia is home to 14 scheduled airlines.

Boston's network is dominated by domestic services, with 14 destinations in Europe and 7 in Central America and the Caribbean, with a service to the Cape Verde operated by Cabo Verde Airlines

Boston has a mix of low-cost and legacy carriers with the leading carriers in the market outlined in the table below.

Source Flightbase 14-20 June 2010.

Between March 2009 and 2010, IATA BSP data shows that Boston Logan handled 23.8 million passengers with and JetBlue carrying 15% of this traffic with an average load factor of just over 90%.

Jetblue has significantly expanded its operations to Logan, in 2008 offered 52,756 weekly seats in Boston to 28 destinations, Jetblue currently offers 74,736 which represents a significant boost in capacity.

JETBLUE'S STRATEGY IN BOSTON

JetBlue's network strategy in Boston has been to connect points on the West Coast of America with non-stop services to Seattle, Las Vegas, San Diego and San Francisco amongst others. It also has increased non-stop flying to the Caribbean, a key focus of the Jetblue network, and now operates 6 routes in the Caribbean, and 6 routes in Florida, linking Boston with sunshine markets that prove to be popular year round and have performed well in terms of load factor in yield.

Jetblue has sought to be the largest carrier at Boston and has attacked US Airways on several key short domestic routes. Jetblue now operates on the Charlotte and Pittsburgh sectors, traditionally strong performing US Airways markets as well as Raleigh Durham and Buffalo. Its latest move into Phoenix will see a second west coast market that US serves from Boston, following Las Vegas.

Boston is now the second largest airport in capacity terms in the JetBlue network accounting for 11% of all scheduled JetBlue flights

WHERE NEXT FOR JETBLUE

By comparing the JFK and BOS markets, a GAP Analysis shows some possible markets served at JFK but not Boston by Jetblue.

Jetblue could also look at markets that are not currently part of its network but are two of the largest unserved markets from Boston:

• San Antonio- Texas. IATA BSP data demonstrates that over 79,000 passengers flew between March 09-10, with American Airlines carrying 31% of this traffic.
• Dayton, Ohio- Over 58,000 passengers flew between March 09-10 with AirTran carrying the majority of passengers.

Whilst these markets could be options for JetBlue, it is likely the immediate focus will be on leisure routes to Florida and the Caribbean, however Rochester and Syracuse could be markets that JetBlue will seek to compete with US Airways on, adding pressure to its biggest competitor at Boston Logan.