In August 2021, JetBlue launched transatlantic flights using Airbus A321LRs. Up until now, the airline has exclusively flown to London (out of Boston and New York), and then in June 2023, the airline will launch flights to Paris (initially out of New York).
We’ve known that JetBlue wants to add flights to Amsterdam as its third European destination, but the airline hasn’t been able to secure slots to do so. That has finally changed, with several major catches.
In this post:
JetBlue’s challenges securing Amsterdam slots
For several months now, JetBlue has been pursuing launching nonstop flights from both Boston and New York to Amsterdam. The airline wants to serve each route daily using Airbus A321LRs. Unfortunately up until recently, JetBlue has been unable to secure slots for Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, so in mid-February JetBlue sought the help of the Department of Transportation (DOT):
- In September 2022, JetBlue requested Aeroflot’s slots for the airport, given that the airline can no longer fly to the European Union; however, the airport removed those slots altogether, rather than allocating them to another airline
- More recently, JetBlue requested Flybe’s slots (as the airline ceased operations), but was initially also denied for that
- As part of a green initiative, the Dutch government is reducing landing slots at the airport in the long run, as the country is hoping to shrink its biggest hub airport
Several weeks back, JetBlue requested that the DOT force KLM to give up some slots in order to make JetBlue’s service possible. The argument was that the Delta and KLM joint venture currently offers the only service from Boston and New York to Amsterdam, so more competition is needed to lower fares. JetBlue essentially wanted the DOT to challenge the antitrust authority that the two airlines have as part of their joint venture, arguing it’s bad for consumers.
Amsterdam grants JetBlue slots, with a catch
There’s some good news for JetBlue — per regulatory filings with the Department of Transportation, JetBlue has been granted slots for Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Specifically, the airline has been granted slots from Flybe, which went out of business. Unfortunately that’s the extent of the good news for JetBlue:
- The airline has only been granted these slots for the summer 2023 airline schedule, which runs from late March until late October 2023; in other words, the airline could launch these flights within weeks
- There are no assurances that JetBlue would be able to maintain these slots for the winter schedule, or for the next summer schedule, and obviously the economics are challenging of only being able to launch a route for several months
- The slot times that JetBlue has been given are undesirable and variable, which makes it impossible to maintain a consistent and attractive schedule for consumers
- While JetBlue was of course hoping to be granted slots, the airline likely doesn’t have the aircraft required to actually operate this service starting in the very near future, given JetBlue’s Airbus A321LR delivery timeline
We’ll see if JetBlue somehow ends up launching flights to Amsterdam in the coming weeks, or if it chooses not to use these slots. In the meantime, the airline is continuing to pursue its complaint with the DOT, in hopes of being able to secure permanent slots from Delta and KLM.
JetBlue’s challenging road to growth in Europe
JetBlue has ordered 14 Airbus A321LRs, specifically to be able to operate flights from Boston and New York to Europe. This was a bold move, as it’s always hard for a new challenger to come into a market with established players and be successful.
But JetBlue’s even bigger challenge has proven to be securing slots for European airports, given how many of them are slot restricted. There are only so many European destinations that JetBlue can fly to profitably year-round out of the Northeast, and many of those airports are slot restricted.
So JetBlue’s strategy in being able to offer this service has largely been to beg for slots — in some cases JetBlue is requesting that competitors be forced to give up slots, while in other cases the airline is claiming it should receive available slots over competitors.
JetBlue has had fairly good luck with this strategy so far, slowly but surely securing both Heathrow and Gatwick slots. Now we’re seeing the airline have limited luck with this in Amsterdam. The airline really is having to take a “foot in the door” approach in each case, taking temporary slots, and hoping to make them something more permanent.
I can appreciate JetBlue’s argument about how competition is good for consumers. That being said, I’d say a strong argument could be made that it would be in the better interest of consumers to grant additional slots to airlines operating larger aircraft, since that would add more capacity to markets. Is a JetBlue flight really better for competition than another airline operating a flight with twice as many seats?
Bottom line
After trying for months, JetBlue has finally secured slots for Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Up until now the airline hasn’t been able to secure slots, given the strict flight cap in place at Schiphol Airport, which will be further reduced over time.
JetBlue’s luck has finally changed, as the airline has secured some slots from now defunct Flybe. The catch is that these are temporary slots for the summer 2023 season, and there are no assurances that slots will be granted beyond then. Furthermore, the slot timings aren’t great, and I can’t imagine JetBlue has the aircraft available to immediately start operating this service.
In the meantime, JetBlue is continuing to ask the DOT to force competitors to give up some slots in Amsterdam so that it can add service there permanently, in the name of competition. I’m curious if JetBlue has any luck.
What do you make of JetBlue’s Amsterdam struggles?
B6 whined about slots for both for LHR & LGW. It whined to get slots at CDG. Now it’s whining about slots at AMS. in time, I hope it whines about Rome.
As for the argument of wide body vs narrow body, UA, AA, & DL are in line for batches of A321 XLR jets. Guess where these airframes will fly during the winter months….to the Old World!!!
This is just a foreshadowing the problems to come, once airports have to reduce capacity due to political ("green") pressure. It's an easy task to decide at political level that the "capacity" has to be reduced by a certain percentage. But how to distribute it between the airlines? What about airlines which already only have one flight a day or week? What if airlines accept reduction of the number of flights but want to bring...
This is just a foreshadowing the problems to come, once airports have to reduce capacity due to political ("green") pressure. It's an easy task to decide at political level that the "capacity" has to be reduced by a certain percentage. But how to distribute it between the airlines? What about airlines which already only have one flight a day or week? What if airlines accept reduction of the number of flights but want to bring larger planes for which no stands are available etc.
B6 begging for slots is a joke, we flew Mint from BOS to LHR and you Hager jack shot for point as JetBlue doesn’t count the taxes and landing fees at LHR towards you miles, I got less miles for flying Mint to London then economy plus to DCA from BOS, they other fact is B6 simply cannot offer the ground services to compete with the legacy airlines, the only benefit is they have pressured...
B6 begging for slots is a joke, we flew Mint from BOS to LHR and you Hager jack shot for point as JetBlue doesn’t count the taxes and landing fees at LHR towards you miles, I got less miles for flying Mint to London then economy plus to DCA from BOS, they other fact is B6 simply cannot offer the ground services to compete with the legacy airlines, the only benefit is they have pressured legacies into better bunnies class pricing on these routes and I’ll happily keep flying Delta/KLM/AirFrance/Virgin to euro/uk and enjoy my benefits!
no airline counts taxes and fees paid in cash as revenue for miles accumulation. Jet Blue is no different than anyone else
The simple answer is that JBLU is trying to replicate in months what the legacy airlines built over decades including access to global airports.
JBLU has financially failed to deliver industry average financial results or better for more than a few years of its existence. Unlike Southwest which has stayed firm to its original mission, JBLU has constantly been trying a million different strategies beyond its core initial strategies, most of them have been...
The simple answer is that JBLU is trying to replicate in months what the legacy airlines built over decades including access to global airports.
JBLU has financially failed to deliver industry average financial results or better for more than a few years of its existence. Unlike Southwest which has stayed firm to its original mission, JBLU has constantly been trying a million different strategies beyond its core initial strategies, most of them have been counter to established government policies, and JBLU has yet to be profitable.
JBLU finds itself in the position of wanting to use narrowbody aircraft to fly to western Europe at a time when slots are highly fixed and Europe is dealing w/ a growing backlash against aviation. Even global carriers are fighting to maintain or grow their presence - and they are using widebodies. The notion that JBLU should show up at the party and think they will change the rules is laughable at best.
and let's not forget that they got their permanent slots at LHR from their codeshare partners by paying hard money - exactly what other airlines - esp. Delta had to do. AA and UA bought assets that included LHR slots. The notion that JBLU forced its way into major slot-controlled airports differently than what the legacy carriers did is patently false.
I honestly don't get JetBlue's strategy with this focus on these massive hubs that are already well served. The beauty of using these long-range single aisle aircraft is they can make these long and thin routes work economically which wouldn't work with wide-bodies because there isn't enough demand in those markets to fill that many seats. It's also an incredibly inefficient/wasteful use of slots at places like Heathrow with a small plane on the ground...
I honestly don't get JetBlue's strategy with this focus on these massive hubs that are already well served. The beauty of using these long-range single aisle aircraft is they can make these long and thin routes work economically which wouldn't work with wide-bodies because there isn't enough demand in those markets to fill that many seats. It's also an incredibly inefficient/wasteful use of slots at places like Heathrow with a small plane on the ground like this where a wide-body could be instead given the demand that is available in the market it serves.
US/EU regulators generally don't care about, nor focus on, the gauge of aircraft to anywhere NEAR the extent that AvGeeks do.
And despite being "massive hubs," they don't have much in the way of direct competition. As stated: prior to B6, our choice for a nonstop NYC-AMS if you weren't flying DL/KL was to go to Newark.
And where do you even suggest they go? They're not going to go through all this effort/change in...
US/EU regulators generally don't care about, nor focus on, the gauge of aircraft to anywhere NEAR the extent that AvGeeks do.
And despite being "massive hubs," they don't have much in the way of direct competition. As stated: prior to B6, our choice for a nonstop NYC-AMS if you weren't flying DL/KL was to go to Newark.
And where do you even suggest they go? They're not going to go through all this effort/change in their business practices, on the hope that NYC-Cardiff or NYC-Bristol might work, after having failed for the Big3 during multiple previous attempts.
So, what are these undesirable slot times? Evening arrival, morning departure?
This green campaign may be an issue with the unions in trying to cut down capacity at AMS. It already is with KLM. Nederlands temporarily imposed a $250 green surcharge on all flights but that was immediately delayed. They certainly want to cut down EU flights which would make AMS less of a hub. Ironic thing is if the unions strike it will cut down flights. And adding another airline now ?? They need a policy of lowering CO2 per passenger not downsizing AMS.
AMS airport is a mess, last year it had a complete meltdown. Avoid that airport at all costs... take your business elsewhere
This is such a good news story for consumers. Looking at prices NYC - AMS compared to NYC - London, Paris, Frankfurt, basically any other major airport, and AMS is the most expensive by a significant margin.
I am supportive of green initiatives but doing so in such a way that only serves to support the existing monopoly at the airport is something that all consumers should be opposed to.
As for the slots being granted only for this summer, but not winter and the following summer, that's in line with IATA rules. JetBlue can apply for next seasons summer slots, and if they have operated the provided slots 80% of the time then they will be granted again for next summer. If not they may (but not will) be granted. For Winter slots Jetblue will probably apply following the usual IATA process, for which they have to submit their initial request by May 11.
@Michael - the S23 slots offered to JetBlue are on non-historical basis. Therefore they do not retain the rights for S24 regardless of meeting the 80-20 requirements.
When JetBlue manages to operate the slots they received for S23 according to the 80% rule, then of course they can regard them as historic when they apply for the same slots in S24, unless they were ad-hoc slots (but those are granted in-season)! Where do you get your information from? I get mine from Chapter 8.7 of the IATA WASG, which last time I checked outlines the official rules.
@Michael - I'm well aware of the WASG provisions - I attended my first SC nearly 20 years ago. That is pretty much exactly what they are doing - the slots are being offered on an ad-hoc basis to JetBlue without historical rights.
This practice has become increasingly popular over the last few years as airlines cut back flights due to the pandemic (and returned unused slots thanks to government waivers of 80-20 provisions)....
@Michael - I'm well aware of the WASG provisions - I attended my first SC nearly 20 years ago. That is pretty much exactly what they are doing - the slots are being offered on an ad-hoc basis to JetBlue without historical rights.
This practice has become increasingly popular over the last few years as airlines cut back flights due to the pandemic (and returned unused slots thanks to government waivers of 80-20 provisions). These slots were re-allocated on ad-hoc non-historical basis. That's why you saw a bunch of new entrants at places at Heathrow over the last few years, and why they are mostly queitly exiting now that S23 is upon us.
Plus even IATA is going after AMS/ACNL over their reduction in ops. Even KLM/Delta and others have come out against AMS in joint statements. Jetblue does have a strong argument that due to the DL/KLM JV that has antitrust protections that says they (AMS) must give equal access to new entrants as a U.S. airport would have to do the same. Repeated denials by AMS and removing slots breaks that agreement (in the argument). So...
Plus even IATA is going after AMS/ACNL over their reduction in ops. Even KLM/Delta and others have come out against AMS in joint statements. Jetblue does have a strong argument that due to the DL/KLM JV that has antitrust protections that says they (AMS) must give equal access to new entrants as a U.S. airport would have to do the same. Repeated denials by AMS and removing slots breaks that agreement (in the argument). So in theory the US could take a KLM/DL slot pair and give it to jetblue.
United also flies EWR-AMS, so the New York market does in fact have an option besides DL/KL, but the point remains that fares are high and there's little competition to DL/KL. If the airport is intentionally limiting slots to new entrants, then it does start to seem like the incumbents should have less protection, as the antitrust immunity was effectively granted at a time of Open Skies and when AMS was growing and allowing new...
United also flies EWR-AMS, so the New York market does in fact have an option besides DL/KL, but the point remains that fares are high and there's little competition to DL/KL. If the airport is intentionally limiting slots to new entrants, then it does start to seem like the incumbents should have less protection, as the antitrust immunity was effectively granted at a time of Open Skies and when AMS was growing and allowing new entrants. I'm not sure B6 is the best use of limited slots given their use of tiny narrowbody planes, but it would still be very welcome to have more competition in this market.