The airport professional's source for airport industry news, articles, events, and careers.
Issue link: http://airportbusiness.epubxp.com/i/813534
INDUSTRY INSIDER 38 airportbusiness April 2017 actually shrunk. This company has almost doubled its size, so I think the real answer is that the growth has been concentrated. But there's growth in each market, which is not showing up in market destinations. AB: WHEN YOU'RE LOOKING AT A NEW CITY OR AN AIRPORT IS TRYING TO GET JETBLUE TO COME WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BOXES THAT YOU CHECK OFF? MS: We are at 100 cities right now, so we know the new city process pretty well. We have a very deliberate process where we do a lot of research on our own. We look at market size and if the market has been growing or shrinking. Pricing is also very important. We want to see a good business-leisure mix that we can stimulate by cutting prices. When we see a city really com- ing into its own, that's when we have conver- sations with the service development people or airport directors. We're in constant contact with between 16 and 20 cities that are trying to put them- selves into the bullpen as the next place we go. We build those relationships over time. When we get down to the short list — and we're thinking next year it may be four cit- ies — that's where we really kick into our local outreach. That includes things like visiting the cities, talking to large corpora- tions and looking at standard travel patterns. AB: ONCE YOU'VE DECIDED THAT YOU'RE GOING TO GO IN A CITY, HOW DO YOU WORK WITH AIRPORTS TO ENSURE THAT YOUR INFRASTRUC- TURE, MARKETING AND PARTNER- SHIP NEEDS ARE MET WHEN IT COMES TO GETTING THE SERVICE OFF THE GROUND AND RUNNING? MS: One great example of that is Atlanta. Atlanta had been very high on the list for our corporate customers in Boston as far as where they'd like us to go next. But Atlanta, as big as the airport is, has significant gate chal- lenges. We've been working with the city for years trying to find a gate solution that works for us. The original gates offered were ones with hold rooms that fit only 15 or 20 people. We said it's not negotiable. We can't fly 150- seat airplanes in and out of those small gates. JetBlue is about is delivering the best service experience of any airline in North America and we couldn't provide great service out of the gates they wanted to give us. Now we're finally going to be on Concourse E. We don't love it, but it's the best option that we have. AB: IT'S BEEN 13 YEARS SINCE JETBLUE WAS IN ATLANTA. WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE THAT NOW WAS THE TIME TO RETURN? MS: As we were thinking of the list of the cities that our corporate clients in Boston wanted, Atlanta was the next on the list. We're very deliberate in trying to make sure that we don't JetBlue Airways