JetBlue Offers Employees "Opt Out" Packages To Cut Costs

With a failed Merger attempt with SPIRIT (horrible idea in concept) JetBlue is in a precarious position.....not big enough to compete with the Big 3 and Southwest on a National Front and limited options going forward. The TransAtlantic venture needs to be dropped.....it will never stand a chance against the Big 3 and their Joint Venture partners over time, not flying A321 narrowbody aircraft. JetBlue is excluded from any Global Alliance and this hurts their marketability on the global stage more than they estimate. JetBlue lacks Airport Lounges which Is a problem in the Big Markets that they want to serve. Outside of some type of arrangement where they partner with AA under allowable terms leveraging the JFK Operation , maybe consider acquiring Hawaiian Airlines for the mass they need or looking at some other partner, they just do not have many opportunities available. I for one do not see Alaska even interested in any type of a Merger/Acquistion because JetBlue wants to be in control and Alaska is never going to allow that and the price to acquire Alaska is way out of bounds for JetBlue.

Agree. Plus AS is a real, profitable airline with plan. So why would they?

Jetblue just needs to better position themselves as a value carrier. I think a lot of people are confused because they seem to present themselves as a LCC, but their fares aren’t any cheaper than legacies. And Europe can totally work if they improve their reliability, especially at their hubs. Also, are you aware that Alaska is currently about to buy Hawaiian? And an Alaska-Jetblue merger would be detrimental for all involved parties.

Great to see that the same bargain basement consultants who are working on middle east strategy also appear to be running domestic air policy. Love that for us. Terrific.

The expansion into Europe is fine, and tbh there's a lot of good leisure and business destinations that'd be a good fit for JetBlue and their airplanes like Brussels, Berlin, Bordeaux, Barcelona, Lisbon, Nice, Rome, etc.

Is it possible that air travel had hit a plateau or near peak?
The north east is at saturation via air traffic control which is a bottle neck.
So, it needs to get its house in order (reliability, frequency, cost control).
Other opportunities await (organic growth or do I feel a Breeze in the air).
The midwest is the weakest link.

My experience is that voluntary buyouts often are follows by layoffs and the terms of the layoffs are usually not nearly as good. If I worked for Jet Blue and had a lot of seniority I would strongly consider taking the offer then finding another job. Frankly don’t see things going well at Jet Blue the next couple of years and this is likely the best deal they will get

My wife also took VSA (Voluntary Separation Agreement) from AS when it was first offered on my expert advice that future involuntary layoffs won't be so good with benefits.
My advice to JB folks.... if you have "vested" or qualify for lifetime retiree benefits, take the package and get out. It may be emotionally painful but you won't regret it.

I am just sad for the hard workers. Mabey UAL might buy ? It works JFK and bos

Interesting idea. But UA already has NE presence in both EWR and IAD. So getting JFK and BOS isn't that attractive. My feeling as an IAD based 1K is that UA lacks a real presence in SE to compete against AA in CLT and DL in ATL. A B6 purchase does nothing to help that.

Even though their route networks are pretty compatible, AS would get stuck with JetBlue's horrible operational performance. I've literally NEVER had a JetBlue flight that didn't have some sort of operational issue. From leaving one of my two bags behind on a non-stop SFO-BOS to a six hour delay between DCA and BOS, there's always a problem and it's never trivial.

AS seems to be focused on west coast and transcons to serve their west coast based flyers. It's a solid strategy and one I appreciated when I was PDX and then SFO/SJC based. JetBlue is unlikely to be in the cards for them.