Centerlines - September 2008 - (Page 63) A IR S E R V I C E JetBlue Airways Marty St George, Vice President, Capacity Planning JetBlue has a well-established U.S. network that it is now trying to market to international carriers, said St. George. “We have a great network and like to exploit it.” It now has a code-share arrangement with Aerlingus. While Lufthansa is now a minority owner in JetBlue, a similar code-share agreement has not been worked out. Since the June conference, JetBlue has announced new flights out of Portland, Ore., Richmond and Washington Dulles. “Bankruptcy is a possibility,” Aretakis told the conference participants. “The oil prices have damaged demand. We don’t know what normal is. We know that some of our demand is going away. We talk about experimentation. There will be a lot less experimentation in the future.” “We will be looking in the fall—at the arithmetic and fuel prices. The 717 is a terrific plane and we are looking for opportunities.” Air Canada Vijay Bathija, Senior Director, Network Planning Air Canada has 65 percent of the domestic capacity. Vijay Bathija explained that while traffic is down 3 percent—most the reductions are on transborder routes into the U.S. The stronger Canadian dollar and the resource-based economy of western Canada continues to buttress demand in spite of the higher oil prices. United Airlines David Jehn, Director, Network Planning Today is a different situation that earlier in the decade when United spent nearly three years in bankruptcy, said Jehn. “Right now we see a problem and it is a difficult situation. We don’t anticipate any problems as we adjust capacity and our revenue stream. It will allow supply and demand to reset. There is no planning for another bankruptcy.” United and others have looked to international flights to boost their revenues. “There is less competition on international routes,” Jehn said. “However, fuel costs have a greater impact since it is a higher percentage of your costs. And, this has dampened our desires to growth internationally.” Cape Air Andrew Bonney, Vice President of Planning & Route Development “The fact that we do thin markets and short-haul markets means the fuel impact is not as great for us. We are actually doing okay,” Bonney said. “We are not the all-purpose solution to all airports. Cape Air is very risk adverse. We definitely want to partner with the community, but there needs to be subsidization to limit business risk.” ■ Midwest Airlines Greg Aretakis, Vice President, Capacity Planning Prior to the June conference, Midwest had announced plans to stop flying its fleet of MD-80s leaving it with just the Boeing 717s. Since the conference, the carrier announced that it would reduce it employment by 40 percent. www.aci-na.org | CENTERLINES 63 http://www.aci-na.org
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