Centerlines - January 2008 - (Page 19)

ONE ON ONE very respectful of customers with the English-Spanish language capability. And during the peak holidays, the ability to have the meeters and greeters, the people to help with the flow of cars at the roadways during the peaks, helping at the front of the building and working with the TSA to make sure they’re staffed so we can get people through the checkpoints. By and large, you can have a great experience on a flight, but if I can’t get through the checkpoint, then I don’t like the airline and I don’t like the airport. Vt., and Orlando with the 190. That’s the nice thing about having the flexibility of this size airplane, 100 seats to 150 seats. Embraer 190 Also, what does it cost to take off or land at that airport, as well as rent utilities, etc. And you’ve got to have on-the-ground due diligence and gut instinct. What’s really happening in a community? You have to have a feel for it as opposed to just trying to do it from an office. Do you seek to be the first with a city pair match up, or do you look for a proven route that you can do better on with your fare base? All of the above. We don’t have to find city pairs that aren’t being served today, although the Embraer 190, a true 100-seat airplane with the kind of range that it has, is ideal for that. But if we have the opportunity to go into new city pairs on a previously served basis, we’ll do that too. A couple of examples on that—we just inaugurated service from Buffalo down to Orlando on the Airbus 320, and I believe we’re the test flight of the market along with Southwest and AirTran. Converse to that, we had the launch of a new city pair, I believe the first time ever, between Burlington, In selecting a new market, do you “test drive” it first with the smaller Embraer 190s, or are some markets “earmarked” for the larger 320s right from the start? Some markets are earmarked, if you will, with the larger airplane, but the 190 truly is a pathfinder. And we’ve used that airplane to pathfind some of these new markets and to prove these new markets, with the hope that they’ll then expand to be 320 markets. Because of its reputation, do you feel that JetBlue is held to a higher standard by travelers or by the media, and do you think that’s fair? I do think that we’re held to a higher standard, but I don’t think it’s unfair. I think part of that is because we’re on such a big stage in New York, so there’s so much visibility. But I’d much rather be in that situation than be somebody who’s held in less regard. As JetBlue has grown, do you feel that you’ve been able to keep the customer-oriented company culture intact? I do believe that we’ve been able to keep it intact and focus on the customer and focus on our crew members. And, I think the reason that we can continue with that focus on the customer is our recruiting process, our training and our commitment to make sure that the tools are in place. This year we’ll interview 100,000 people for 3,000 positions, so it’s the old adage of screening for aptitude but hiring for attitude, people who truly want to be at altitude with a customer for six hours and enjoy it, or the interaction at the ticket counter. If you put someone at baggage service who doesn’t like the traveling public, that’s not a good recipe. I’d love to tell you that we’re perfect with mishandled bags, but we’re not. We’re pretty good. ■ www.aci-na.org | CENTERLINES Do you seek incentive payments to underwrite a new route? Sure. We wouldn’t turn it away. But the market has to be there for the long term without the incentive. So yeah, the incentive is certainly worth looking at to start, but the market has to be profitable on a standalone basis. Do you have any pet peeves with the airports you currently serve that you would like to change? Cultural awareness is really important. The ability to have signage in English and Spanish, universal A320 104 at year-end 2007 with 70 on firm signage. Our route order and 50 options system is very conducive E190 30 at year-end 2007 with 71 on firm to the Hispanic traveler, order and 100 options the Latino traveler, and we want to be JETBLUE AIRCRAFT 19 http://www.aci-na.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Centerlines - January 2008

Contents President’s Message Canadian Airports Associates’ Corner Policy Center Regulatory Front On the Hill and On the Stump One on One: Dave Barger Revenue: The Concessions Awards Environment: O’Hare Expansion Passenger Focus: Houston Friendly Safety and Security: After Comair, What Next? Air Service Recruiting: Charleston’s Acquisition of AirTran On Management: Performance Benchmarking at DFW Now Underway Grand Opening Conference Previews and Reviews New Members Index of Advertisers/Advertiser.com Box Scores

Centerlines - January 2008

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