Southwest will take all of JetBlue’s Long Beach Airport
slots
Southwest Airlines will takeover
all of JetBlue’s slots at the Long Beach Airport. Southwest will go
from 17 flights to 34 flights. The new destinations will be announced at a
later date.Southwest is JetBlue’s biggest competitor.
For year’s JetBlue had successfully
kept out major competition out of Long Beach Airport by acquiring a majority of
flight slots.
JetBlue utilized all of its
flight slots for only a short time. It
however would not give up those slots to other airlines using a tactic it
called “slot rotation” . Hurting the
bottom line of the airport, critics called the tactic “slot squatting
With a near monopoly at the
airport, JetBlue pushed for upgrades and a new terminals. Without the upgrade JetBlue threatened to leave Long Beach. The size of the new terminal became a point of contention between JetBlue
and the impacted neighborhoods. The drawn-out fight resulted in a compromise
size between what JetBlue wanted and the airport impacted neighborhoods
wanted.
After obtaining a new terminal at
what amounted to an almost private JetBue airport, JetBlue began to push for
Long Beach becoming an international airport.
Again JetBlue faced major push
back from the impacted neighborhoods. Neighborhood leaders from the Fourth,
Fifth and Eighth council districts that had already formed a strong coalition
fighting the terminal expansion quickly mobilized to stop the new international
terminal. In the end, JetBlue had
overplayed its hand and lost the fight for the international terminal.
Part of JetBlue’s failure was
based on its “focus city” business model compared to the traditional “hub city”
model. JetBlue’s transcontinental
flights violated the Long Beach Airport Noise Ordnance just about nightly
racking up huge fines. In the middle of the international terminal flight,
those fines reached $1,000,000 and that was without the airline flying all of
its slots.
Shortly after the international
terminal fight, 4th District Councilman Daryl Supernaw sought to strengthen the Long Beach Noise Ordnance.
With the help of top notch airport
attorney’s hired by the city, several changes
were implemented. Those included ending slot squatting /rotating and increasing
late arrival fines.
JetBlue’s quest for an airport
without competition failed. The irony is that now its biggest competitor Southwest will
basically end up with the monopoly that JetBlue once had.
