Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

JetBlue and Southwest’s developing showdown over flights out of Newark is an encouraging sign for travelers looking for cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages. JetBlue announced last week that it would start flying four daily roundtrips between Newark and Boston in May of 2011. Some experts are viewing JetBlue’s new route to Boston as a preemptive strike against Southwest and its soon to commence Newark service.

Southwest recently announced a deal with United and Continental that will give it access to airport slots at Newark and said that its Newark service is scheduled to begin in March.

JetBlue has yet to explain where it will obtain slots needed to operate its new Newark to Boston route from capacity controlled Newark. These slots may come from JetBlue shifting capacity from one of its five Florida routes flying out of Newark. Since JetBlue will only start flying its new Newark to Boston route in May 2011 its start date coincides with when warm weather typically starts in the Northeast and demand for Florida travel begins to moderate.

JetBlue’s response as to where it will get the needed slots to fly from Newark to Boston is that the airline is “finalizing details” and expects more information as it firms up its schedule and moves closer to its target launch date.

JetBlue has aggressively responded to encroachment by Southwest in the past. Shortly after Southwest announced in 2009 that it would begin service to Boston, a JetBlue stronghold, JetBlue announced it would start flying from Boston to Baltimore/Washington, Southwest’s busiest airport in the Northeast.

JetBlue has observed that the Newark to Boston route is overpriced and that it will bring lower fares to the market. This route has higher average fares than JetBlue’s transcontinental routes out of Boston.
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