Jetblue is looking for more support in Pittsburgh. We happen to like Jetblue, and took advantage of their service to Pittsburgh in December to check out our first Embraer 190 aircraft and found the 100-seat aircraft less than full. At a breakfast on Tuesday, Jetblue’s new CEO urged local businessmen to support Jetblue’s efforts to break the US Airways dominance of the airport. US Airways once designated Pittsburgh as a hub, but has since downgraded the airport. With Jetblue claiming responsibility for the lowering of fares to New York, and the Southwest presence lowering fares in other market, US Airways has matched these fares and is retaining customer loyalty to the city they have cut service to.
Jetblue has announced service from Buffalo to Ft. Lauderdale, with a single flight daily effective November 1st. The service will be year-round, and the only nonstop route to Florida. Service will be aboard the 100-seater Embraer 190s. Buffalo holds a special place in Jetblue’s heart, as its first destination….back in the days where Jetblue flights only had two digits…
Jetblue has been looking for new opportunities, especially for the fleet of smaller Embraer 190s which have so far only been used for service in the Northeast. We would love to see these aircraft based out west, or even in Florida…for new routes….not everything should run through New York or Boston…Jetblue learned the folly of it in Feburary…
Also today, in celebration of Independence Day, in an amusing marketing move, Jetblue announced it would “parade in a patriotic, all-American selection of snacks to customers flying the low-fare, high-frills airline in July.” In July, the Terra Blues Potato Chips(the official snack of Jetblue) will be varied with Terra’s Stripes & Blues Exotic Vegetable Chips with Sea Salt, featuring a blend of red and white candy striped beets, sweet potato, and blue potato chips. Chocobillys Chocolate Chip Cookies will be varied with their All-American Apple Pie Apple Oatmeal Chunk cookies. And to complement them…a medley of red and white wines from Jetblue’s low-fare sommelier.
We look forward to seeing what Dave Barger does. Likely Jetblue will soon have priority seating(unfortunate for those of us who won’t pay extra for it), as well as refundable fares.
