JSX launched a frequent flyer program and it’s not what anybody thought.
- They’re offering 5% rebate towards future travel and family pooling.
- That’s hardly revolutionary. But it doesn’t need to be. You choose JSX because the experience so much better – but now you don’t have to pay extra in the form of rebates foregone with a traditional airline in order to do so.
- But the real innovation here: it opens up convenience in the New York market. Wait, what?
Teterboro, 12 miles northwest of Midtown Manhattan, is the primary private jet airport in the region. It has two runways, with runway 1/19 7,000 feet. There are around 200 takeoffs per day, making it the busiest airport for purely private operations in the U.S. About 55% of airport traffic is private jets, with the rest light jets, turboprops, and helicopters.
Scheduled flight operations are strictly prohibited by the Port Authority of New York New Jersey.
Scheduled operations are excluded from Teterboro Airport.
‘Scheduled operation’ means any common passenger‑carrying operation for compensation or hire … held out to the public … at set times announced by a timetable or schedule published in a newspaper, magazine, internet website or other advertising medium.
No distinction is made here between the type of flying that’s done (such as FAA regs parts 121, 135, or 380). If you publish a bookable timetable, that meets the airport’s definition of “scheduled.” But JSX is launching flights from Teterboro anyway. Their website for New York as a destination doesn’t say this, though.
Available to JSX Club Members Only. Log In to view more information about our services to New York City.
The FAA says scheduled operations under part 135 only come into play with five roundtrips per week, so an entity could fly less than that an not be ‘scheduled’ (14 CFR 135.261(b)(1))
“Scheduled passenger-carrying operations” means passenger-carrying operations that are conducted in accordance with a published schedule which covers at least five round trips per week on at least one route between two or more points, includes dates or times (or both), and is openly advertised or otherwise made readily available to the general public.
But a federal judge in the Westchester County case held that an airport’s rules can go beyond FAA guidelines, pushing JSX and public charters into the main terminal and subjecting them to the rules of that terminal (including that the terminal is full, so not available for them to use).
The key in the PANYNJ rule for Teterboto is whether flights are held out to the public for sale. And these new JSX flights are not. The general public cannot book them – they are only bookable by members of Club JSX!
A JSX spokesperson explains,
Like all other Part 135 charter operators at this particular airport, our service is not offered to the public and is available to Club JSX Members only.
JSX will fly from Teterboro to:
- Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE) starting October 2
- Miami Opa Locka (OPF) starting October 2
- West Palm Beach (PBI) starting November 6
JSX figuring how to unlock Teterboro is huge for the New York market. And, frankly, the right thing to do. The airport is funded and operated by a public body and shouldn’t be reserved for the wealthiest with their own private jets. Here, a public agency systematically excludes large segments of the public from publicly-owned infrastructure.
The limits are also anti-competitive and underutilizes the infrastructure, since the same number of takeoffs and landings could serve more people.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see lawsuits. After all, big airlines like American and Southwest spent years trying to get the federal government to block JSX from operating at all. They didn’t want competition from a better product. But JSX continues to find new ways to offer convenience to customers.
They fly out of private terminals, where you can show up 20 minutes before your flight and have a leisurely experience. Onboard everything is comfortable, friendly, and with free drinks and free Starlink internet. They don’t nickel and dime with fees. It’s a premium product, to be sure, but offering a bit of private aviation access to a commercial audience. And they’ve found a brilliant way to deliver this to the New York – Florida market.
This is big, especially for those of us with the ‘enhanced’ Chase United cards with JSX credits; I wasn’t kidding @Mike Hunt, I’m interested in trying this from NY-FL! Now, where’s @Erect (and all of his alter-egos) who pretend to be ultra-wealthy; sir, unless you are actually ‘of wealth’ or a mercenary for an oligarch, this is the closest you get to flying private, other than SXM-SBH, and those ain’t ‘luxurious.’
Gary, You fail to mention the negative impact of these additional flights on people who live and work under the flight paths. The impact of more flights on the planet. Sometimes more is less.
@Andrew Rosenthal — Oh, please. What a silly gripe. First, y’all choose those properties. Sell, move, if you don’t want it anymore. Not to mention, it ain’t JSX that’s causing most of your ‘noise pollution,’ it’s all the oligarch’s and their private jets that make up nearly all of that existing traffic. Also, it’s New Jersey… c’mon, the entire NYC area is used to ‘noise’ and ‘pollution,’ so please do move to Manhattan, Kansas, if you can’t stand the one near the Hudson River…
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: JSX has super uncomfortable seating. I hate it. And there’s really no good reason for it other than being too cheap to install appropriate seats with true first class pitch and width. Until that happens, I’ll be happy to fly Delta in and out of JFK and LGA.
Can’t remember the episode but Office Ladies 6.0 raved about JSX – apparently Jenna had some situation in Aspen and they missed their flight, had to drive to Denver for JSX but there was a weather-related traffic delay causing them to almost miss the new flight, but JSX was waiting for them and whisked them right on board.
I get it for short 1 hour hops on the west coast. Why you’d want to be on a small regional jet for a NYC-MIA flight is beyond me. And would rather be with a mainline carrier if there are irregular operations. Just feels like they should be targeting NYC-BOS-DCA routes as a shuttle for business people, not NYC-MIA.
Mike Hunt, they’ve said before that it’s because you can’t install bigger chairs on the ERJ without redoing the entire floor. The aisle is lower in the middle.
@Mike Hunt – maybe you’ve flown the intra-California 135s? Because they do offer F pitch if you consider Delta to do so
@Andrew Rosenthal – I’d expect that an anti-air travel activist such as yourself would WANT jsx in place of private jets, since it’s more passengers per aircraft and therefore fewer flights
@Gary Leff – All I can tell you is that I’m tall and my knees dig into the seat in front of me on JSX unless I’m in the bulkhead seat. That doesn’t happen on AA or DL in F. IMO, it truly is an economy seat in terms of width and overall comfort. YMMV.
@Mike Hunt — Wait a minute, didn’t the guy behind @Erect also pretend to be @1990 at one point, suggesting he was 6’6” (oh, that imposter!)… @L737, the investigation continues!
I’m surprised no big airline has changed policies to allow you to show up closer to departure to try to compete here. Instead they are all going the other direction.
I would love to see JSX operate from South Florida to the Washington DC area. Leesburg Executive (JYO) would be ideal. Please!
@1990 — The plot thickens! A man pretending to be another on VFTW? Oh sirrah, how deliciously absurd!
@rjb — I too would like to see some JSX flights out of the DC area. Leesburg would be nice!
@L737 — Thicc, indeed!