JetBlue gets ready to pounce if a Las Vegas airline fails

Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2001 | 9:58 a.m.

JetBlue Airways, a New York-based low-fare air carrier with plans to begin flying to Las Vegas in 2003, may accelerate those plans if an established airline drops out of the picture.

"Las Vegas is a great opportunity from New York under the right conditions," said Dave Ulmer, vice president of planning for JetBlue. "If somebody fails, we know Las Vegas is a place New Yorkers want to go."

Company officials are well aware of the dynamics of the market and the "somebody" Ulmer referred to are two carriers that currently offer flights between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and McCarran International -- National and America West Airlines.

JetBlue doesn't envision nonstop flights between New York and McCarran when it inaugurates service. The airline, which began flying in February 2000, instead is working to develop a West Coast hub at Long Beach, Calif., and would connect Las Vegas passengers there for flights to other destinations.

Ulmer said the company recognizes that some Southern California customers will take advantage of the lack of congestion at Long Beach and use it instead of Los Angeles International Airport for flights to Las Vegas. At the end of August, eight airlines were operating 51 flights a day between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. There have been some cutbacks since the attacks.

But Long Beach does have some limitations. Like the airport at Orange County, Calif., the number of daily flights to and from Long Beach is capped.

The airline flies new 162-passenger Airbus A-320 twin-engine jets, among the quietest and most fuel-efficient planes in the air. JetBlue has embraced the Southwest Airlines success formula of operating one aircraft type to minimize expenses for spare parts and crew training. It also flies into lesser-used regional airports to avoid air traffic jams.

But unlike Southwest, the airline isn't growing from a short-haul specialty to longer hauls -- it has short flights between New York and Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester, N.Y., and Burlington, Vt., but it also links New York with Oakland, Calif., and another Los Angeles alternative, Ontario, Calif.

JetBlue also follows Southwest's lead in not serving meals on planes, even on the coast-to-coast flights. But it does offer passengers access to a 24-channel DirecTV satellite system at every seat.

The airline is headed by Chief Executive Officer David Neeleman, who ran Salt Lake City-based Morris Air, which was sold to Southwest in 1993.