New Plays at JetBlue - Flight Wisdom

JetBlue International Check-In - Terminal 5

JetBlue and Lufthansa have signed a codeshare agreement which would place Lufthansa flight numbers on 12 destinations in the U.S. to Boston and New York. The agreement is pending DOT approval.

JetBlue’s experience with interline and codeshare has been limited. It has put its flight number on Cape Air flights from Boston. Its arrangement with Aer Lingus does not involve codesharing. In the case of Cape Air, JetBlue handles all the combined sales. In the case of the Aer Lingus arrangement, Aer Lingus sells all the combined tickets, which will be the same case for Lufthansa, except for the addition of the codeshare, which brings things to another level.

Meanwhile, the Cranky Flier brought some interesting changes to JetBlue’s Bay Area schedule to our attention. Most airlines announce new service, but they rarely spell out service reductions.

The service from Long Beach to San Jose will be terminated, freeing those slots at the restricted Long Beach Airport for service to San Francisco. One New York-JFK and one Washington-Dulles flight to Oakland will be dropped to offer one additional flight from Boston and from New York to San Francisco.

JetBlue attributes the movement of flights to San Francisco International from Oakland and San Jose as a shift in the market. As they put it…

“Weâ€™ve noticed a change in travel patterns since we launched service to SFO two years ago. When we first launched service at OAK, San Francisco residents were more willing to travel across the Bay to catch flights there. In fact, it used to be the case that 35% of OAK Customers actually lived closer to SFO than OAK. Since our arrival at SFO, and Southwestâ€™s and Virgin Americaâ€™s, there has been no shortage of low-fare, long-haul flights there. People now are less likely to travel to OAK for the type of flight that they can just as easily get at SFO. Now only about 15% of our Customers in OAK are coming from areas closer to SFO.”

It is a shame, because it doesn’t factor in the passengers who are actually closer to Oakland and from San Jose, but many of those passengers have had to head to San Francisco in the past, and will likely resume doing so. All airlines are scaling back, and putting their resources where they think they will be best served.