JetBlue to land earlier than expected in Vegas

Wednesday, May 29, 2002 | 11:01 a.m.

JetBlue Airways, a New York-based discount air carrier that last month raised $158.5 million in a public stock offering, will inaugurate service to Las Vegas in October.

The airline, which began flying in February 2000, will offer round-trip, nonstop service between Long Beach, Calif., and McCarran International Airport with four daily flights and two that will operate six days a week.

JetBlue has adopted Long Beach as its West Coast base of operations and is marketing it as a less-congested alternative to Los Angeles International Airport.

The company has made no secret of its plans to eventually serve Las Vegas, but airline officials last year projected the first flights wouldn't occur until early 2003. The acquisition of new planes prompted the earlier start-up.

A spokesman for the airline said in addition to marketing the service to Southern California residents, the company hopes to attract customers who would fly to Long Beach and connect for a one-hour flight to Las Vegas.

Gareth Edmondson-Jones said JetBlue has no immediate plans to offer nonstop service from its other major stronghold, New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

"Is that a possibility (in the future)? Absolutely," said Edmondson-Jones. "But we have nothing under consideration at this time."

JetBlue has distinguished itself as a discount carrier with just enough creature comforts to set it apart from industry leader Southwest Airlines. The airline flies brand-new 162-passenger twin-engine Airbus A-320 jets and each passenger gets a leather seat and access to free DirecTV satellite television programming.

Planes also are equipped with security cameras in the passenger cabin and bullet-proof cockpit doors.

JetBlue initially was capitalized with $100 million, some of which was put up by Chief Executive Officer David Neeleman, who sold Salt Lake City-based Morris Air to Southwest Airlines in 1993. The recent public offering enabled the airline to acquire more jets from Airbus Industrie.

JetBlue is scheduled to take delivery of 14 or 15 planes a year over the next five years and increase the fleet to 132 aircraft. The delivery of new planes enabled the airline to announce a major expansion in service from Long Beach. In addition to the Las Vegas flights that begin Oct. 10, JetBlue is planning nine flights a day between Long Beach and Oakland beginning Sept. 6, one flight a day to and from Salt Lake City and a fifth daily flight to New York, both beginning Oct. 10.

"This is good news for the destination," said Rob Powers, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. "Any company that adds service and brings more people to Las Vegas benefits the entire resort community."

About a quarter of Las Vegas' 35 million annual visitors arrives from Southern California.

"They (JetBlue) are the darlings of the East Coast," said Terry Trippler, a travel expert from Trippler & Associates, Minneapolis. "Will they be the darlings of the West Coast? They're capable of it. They have a lot of their competitors worried. They're well capitalized and they're making a profit. So far, I've heard nothing but positive things about them."

The airline announced Tuesday that one-way tickets between Las Vegas and Long Beach would range from $44 to $89 based on a 14-day advanced purchase. Tickets bought through the airline's Internet site are $5 cheaper.