The New York Times reports that Jetblue is expected to announce service between Stewart Airport in Newburgh, NY in about two months. The Poughkeepsie Journal reports that Senator Charles Schumer(Dem-NY) confirmed this, and that he is expected to be at Stewart Wednesday morning to announce this, with a daily roundtrip flight to Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando beginning in December, with a second flight in January as well as service to West Palm Beach. If so, that announcement will follow Airtran’s intention to serve Stewart…We commented on Airtran’s service to Stewart which followed their launch of service to Westchester County Airport in White Plains, NY.
The Financial Times reports that JetBlue announced plans on Tuesday to start code-sharing with international carriers. Now, a code-share operation with any international carrier would likely have Jetblue interlining bags to and from other carriers for the first time. Isolation from interline ticketing and baggage was one of the cost-saving principles Jetblue was based on. While airlines do pay each other for such services, Jetblue and Southwest have so far exempted themselves from this. Southwest relaxed this only in its codesharing with ATA.
The cost of implementing code-sharing aside, the benefits of allying with international airlines are many. International airlines are looking for domestic carriers to feed their passengers to and from. For Jetblue, it means a new revenue stream and a way to get their brand beyond its geography.
Jetblue has cut fleet deliveries, sold off older planes, and while is continuing to grow, has reduced its growth plans for next year to its lowest yet. It is predicting numerous destinations for next season. Obviously, it will have to inaugurate its Chicago-O’Hare service in January. We predict at least one more midwest destination. Jetblue’s route map lacks midwest coverage, and with limited service to O’Hare, many people assume that they will attempt to add service to underserved Midwestern cities. St. Louis, TWA’s discarded hub, seems like a good option. We will see what happens as things progress. We didn’t predict they would show up at Stewart after Airtran.