As expected, this morning Jetblue unveiled its new Chicago service, beginning January 4th. The service will include five daily flights on Jetblue’s Embraer 190 aircraft to Jetblue’s East Coast Hub, JFK in New York, and two daily flights with A320s to Long Beach, CA, their west coast hub.
In honor of this, they are offering a special $36 fare for the first 36 hours since the announcement. They are also offering connecting fares on special, allowing connections to many of Jetblue’s cities available from their hubs.
We admit to concern about the success of Jetblue in the fortress hub of two airlines, American and United. Currently, aside from this announcement, Delta and American together offer a total of three flights daily to JFK from O’Hare. The rest of the service all goes to LaGuardia Airport. Both American and United will likely switch capacity to the route to compete.
We think that Jetblue has a good chance of carving out a good niche with its service and adding to its route network, but considering the fare war they are probably about to start, it may hurt them more than it will help.