The JetBlue flight attendants union let crewmembers know on Thursday that the airline was planning to need fewer flight attendants starting in September as a result of schedule reducations, and that this would last at least through the winter season. Specifically they estimated that 39,000 flight attendant hours would be dropped from the schedule. As a result they’re offering leaves of absence of up to six months.
Some flight attendants will have their schedules split up from each other as well, which leads to potentially exacerbated irregular operations. When one shorter flight with Mint is delayed, that means two subsequent flights may delay as two of the delayed flight attendants don’t make their next service on time.
This news was first reported by aviation watchdog JonNYC.
JetBlue:
“Email from TWU Union to JetBlue Flight Attendants. Beginning September, offering up to six months LOA, cutting flying hours, reducing FA staffing on Transatlantic, and splitting FA up rather than the same FAs remaining together on the entire pairing.” pic.twitter.com/JYVRdCWhFO— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) July 18, 2024
We’ve seen JetBlue cut its transatlantic flying with London Gatwick becoming seasonal and a scaling back in the schedule to a single Paris flight. That means less crew needed across the Atlantic.
We’ve also seen JetBlue decide to disable business class suite doors on some planes, in order to reduce flight attendant staffing. An FAA requirement to check that doors were locked in position for takeoff and landing meant staffing expense that JetBlue has decided to save, standardizing all of JetBlue’s Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft with 4 cabin crew. (This is exceptionally low compared to other carriers flying similar numbers of passengers, though JetBlue’s load factors have been generally lower.)
They’ve also scaled back other routes and destinations as well.
JetBlue is struggling financially, and is expected to make several changes not just to its schedule but also its product, including plans to introduce a standard domestic first class product.
What’s a “reducation”?
@B787 … What’s a “reducation” ? That is when you educate yourself that you have a reduced standard of living .
JetBlue will be acquired by American Airlines, eventually.
“UNION NOW” “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!!!”
LOOKS like I’ll be seeing plenty of flight attendants at Home Depot in the near future.
Wonder how they’ll like the working conditions there since they HATE the ones at the airline .
Classic death spiral.
No wonder they make the questionable move of holding onto the taxes of cancelled itineraries….trying to squeeze every dollar they can.
Following AA’s route…kill a good product to save a few pennies. Short-term thinking.
As a former B6 employee, its current & rapid state of decline makes me sad. There was a time it felt like they were doing everything right. There was pride in wearing their uniform.Then they decided to rapidly expand routes and go international. JetBlue was best when they kept it simple, only flew 3 types of aircraft and focused on their east coast hubs.
Only for amusement here. I attempted to show JetBlue management, over 10 years back, a growth strategy that would leverage their existing positions in the Caribbean, Central America and Florida. They had their best years flying New Yorkers to those regions. Rather than jumping right into competing with ALL of the other majors on the east west routes, they’d be better off sticking with their bread and butter, until they had reached a significant market share. United has a major hole in that it has no SE hub. It competes poorly in the growing vacation market to what I dub the vacation triangle. Only American and Delta can compete well for the mid-America (Midwest and MidAtlantic) to the vacation triangle. While ultra low cost have Orlando covered, there are both many other Florida destinations and dozens of vacation destination off shore airports to serve. Once Cuba becomes more an option, that’s a large market.
A SE hub in growing destination spots like Charleston or Savannah, are superb small hubs for the vacation triangle. Dozens of markets across the mid-West, mid-Atlantic, are too small to have directs to the many vacation spots, and expect to be hubbed, which today occurs in ATL, CLT, MCO, FLL or MIA.
To Chris:
“UNION NOW” “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!!!”
LOOKS like I’ll be seeing plenty of flight attendants at Home Depot in the near future.
Wonder how they’ll like the working conditions there since they HATE the ones at the airline .
Is this an anti-Union comment? And, why do you think In-Flight will work at Home Depot? Why Home Depot? That’s so random. What does Home Depot have to do with anything?
I just need more clarification on this post.
I guess this is a new way for airline companies to purge flight attendants that they don’t want or ones that aren’t maybe pulling their weight fully with doing their jobs
One year from now, which US airlines do you think will either be in bankruptcy or cease to operate? I see Breeze and Frontier as most vulnerable as they are all leisure carriers with no TATL demand to offset domestic softness of coming for the winter.
Which airlines are going to have furloughs? My answer is all. The new pilot and f/a contracts are unsustainable with any wobble in demand.
@Name
You’re right. Walmart is more suited for most of them.
@CHRIS and you know this from your own experience as a Walmart employee? Are you collecting the shopping carts from the parking lot or did you get bumped up to a greeter?