Amsterdam mocks JetBlue: stop flights from New York and Boston in 2024
JetBlue's presence at Amsterdam Airport will be a meteor. With only a few months to go before the start of operations (August 2023) and after [...]
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It will be a meteor the presence of JetBlue at Amsterdam Airport. With only a few months to go before operations begin (August 2023) and after a long legal battle, the U.S. airline will have to give up flights from New York JFK and Boston to the Dutch capital.
In the past few hours, in fact, Airport Coordination Netherlands (Acnl) has announced that JetBlue has lost its takeoff and landing slots at the airport of Amsterdam Schiphol for summer 2024.
The legal battle and takeoff in August
The decision is the result of capacity cuts that the government of the Netherlands has enacted over the past few months (to mitigate air and noise pollution in the area), which could also affect KLM's operations.
A choice that sounds like a real mockery to JetBlue, which for long months has Had to fight against the protectionist push of Holland, which wanted to prevent the carrier's entry on routes where the home airline's dominance is unchallenged. The ensuing legal battle saw JetBlue's arguments triumph, and it was not until last April that the slots were confirmed.
Against this backdrop, the U.S. airline had to get the first flights off the ground from New York only in late August, while the route to Boston opened on September 20. KLM's "revenge," however, was not long in coming, and today comes the benservit from the Netherlands.
The repercussions of the cap on flights
In September 2023, for example, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport was the third busiest in Europe, with an average of 4,563 flights per week. Under the new regulations, however, the number of annual flights has been limited to 452,500 by 2024, about 10% less than the pre-pandemic peak of 500,000.
The government-imposed cut means that some 24 airlines-which do not hold so-called historical rights, including JetBlue-will not Will have more right to slots of takeoff or landing. While those with historical rights will have to reduce their traffic at the airport by 3.1%.
Because of these measures, Schiphol Airport could fall below the capacity of Frankfurt and Paris CdG. the decision irked JetBlue's top management, which, at this point, ahas asked U.S. authorities to ban KLM from slots on New York.
JetBlue's future moves
JetBlue is one of the few companies that uses the A321lr for intercontinental connections, But year after year this number is bound to increase and Crossing the Atlantic on a single-aisle plane will no longer be an exception.
Aboard the A321lr there are 138 seats. The first 12 rows house 24 mint class seats, or Jetblue's business class, followed by 114 economy class seats.
The U.S. airline-which already flies to London Heathrow and Paris CdG-had made a powerful entry into the market for Atlantic connections to Amsterdam by announcing aggressive prices with round-trip tickets in economy for less than $500 and business class tickets under $2,000.
Obviously the prices have made KLM and Delta Airlines raise their antennae, despite the fact that the two carriers operate many more routes than the one daily frequency proposed by JetBlue.
But, apparently, the U.S. carrier's model of offering quality and services of absolute excellence along with aggressive pricing did not appeal to Skyteam's two allies.
The "forced" abandonment of Amsterdam, then, opens up new prospects for JetBlue. Beyond yet another legal battle looming on the horizon; now the airline will have to find a New base where it can operate its A321LRs. The options, at the moment seem to be two: enhance the routes already in place or diversify by investing in other markets.
In the first scenario, it is likely that we will see a increased frequencies over Paris - continuing to annoy the Air France-KLM-Delta axis-or on London Gatwick (Since Heathrow is too busy and slots are scarce there as well.
An Italian debut?
The second, more suggestive scenario could lead JetBlue to invest in the southern European markets, following United's model.
In fact, the latter has in recent months launched flights to Malaga, Tenerife, Palma (in Spain) and Naples in Italy (and soon Palermo may arrive).
This could be the time, then, for JetBlue's Italian debut that has been so often hoped for but never actually officially launched.
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