JetBlue has been touting London flights since 2019 and finally announced New York – London last year with a new business class and an upgraded economy.
Credit: JetBlue
When JetBlue first started teasing London Hopper claimed they would drive down airfares by 12% which was silly off of a single flight, and silly still with just a second narrowbody across the Atlantic. But they’re bringing that second narrowbody.
Over the last several days rumors became clear that JetBlue would announce Boston – London Heathrow service today, using slots they’ve just leased from Qatar Airways. Well, there’s no announcement yet but they’ve front-run their press release by loading the flights into the schedule. And it’s actually more than expected.
- They’re actually going to fly both Boston – London Gatwick and Boston – London Heathrow
- Gatwick service begins July 19 and Heathrow service starts August 22
- Departure times of the Gatwick flight will vary by day, with Boston leaving between 6:22 p.m. and 7:48 p.m. and then pushing back from Gatwick between 10:35 a.m. and 12:25 p.m.
- Heathrow timing will be:
- Boston – London Heathrow, 6:17 p.m. – 06:30 a.m.+1, flight 1620
London Heathrow – Boston, 8:25 a.m. – 11:21 a.m., flight 1621
A321LR Interior, Credit: JetBlue
JetBlue remains a small player in the transatlantic market, but reviews of their product have been good. Operationally they’ve again shown over the past several days that they can be a mess, and that they take awhile to recover from irregular operations. Nonetheless when things go smoothly the seats are relatively good, inflight soft product relatively good, and crew usually don’t mind being there – so this is a great option for crossing the Pond.
(HT: Head For Points)
Excellent to see additional Gatwick flights. The wait times at Heathrow and constant issues with crowd control, baggage handling failures (and super expensive train fares) has made Gatwick my preferred airport.
B6 will find people willing to fly them but they will be a niche transatlantic player as long as they use narrowbody aircraft and take “a little here and a little there” approach to their transatlantic network which they are doing with LGW and LHR and will likely do with other cities. Further, operating costs on their A321s are not lower than legacy carrier widebodies so the notion that they can push fares down is unlikely.
The bigger threat to B6 is that jet fuel prices soared to over $7/gal a gallon yesterday as a result of refinery shortages in the US and Europe; many refineries switched to diesel production during covid and still do not have the capacity to produce enough jet fuel as air travel demand returns. The result is that jet fuel crack spreads – the difference between crude and jet fuel – is at the highest levels in decades. While these jet fuel prices are not sustainable for anyone, Delta’s refinery strategy is specifically designed to limit the crack spread and to ensure adequate supply for Delta. Jet fuel prices in North America are already above global averages and the latest trend will force them higher.
B6 wasn’t forecast to be profitable this year even before this latest jet fuel price hike while Alaska, Delta and Southwest were. Alaska and Southwest are hedged – although hedges don’t limit the crack spread, they will reduce those airlines fuel prices while Delta’s refinery strategy will very likely reduce its jet fuel costs from market prices.
2022 could end up being a dividing line for airline finances due to high fuel costs potentially limiting B6′ ability to grow its transatlantic system.
Why on earth isn’t JetBlue doing a 10am-9pm (non red-eye) BOS-LON flight? They could make a ton of money on that route, but instead they’re flying the same time as EVERY.OTHER.CARRIER.
news sources are reporting that JBLU is preparing an offer for Spirit which has already agreed to merge with Frontier and at a 40% premium to what Frontier offered.
If so, JetBlue is likely to go further “down market’ in quality rather than thinking that B6 will bring Spirit’s quality up
A premium configured A321 to Europe does not fit in the strategy of Spirit
Sean
It could be the cost of overnighting the aircraft in London. Ramp fees are extreme.