Tag Archives for jsx.
Most small rural airports aren’t ever going to be served by the major commercial airlines. 90% of the airports in the country aren’t usable by part 121 carriers but most are open to part 135.
Even where they can use the airports, it’s not economical for their pilots and planes with just a few passengers on board. But new, fuel efficient planes are a few years from market… as long as there remains a market.
With American Airlines and Southwest appearing to lose at the FAA and TSA in their efforts to shut down fellow Dallas-based competitor JSX, which offers a better passenger experience, they’ve turned to their friends in Congress to do the dirty.
Former American Airlines Chairman Doug Parker shared how he championed his airline’s cause using the federal government to try to take out a small competitor. In March he went on the Airlines Confidential podcast and shared that a year earlier he and Southwest Airlines Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson button-holed David Pekoske, asking him to stop allowing JSX from operating out of private terminals without TSA screeners.
A federal judge has issued a ruling permitting Westchester County airport to limit flights out of private terminals by carriers that sell seats to the public.
Westchester County wishes it didn’t have an airport. However they can’t shut it down. They’ve taken federal grant money, so federal rules apply. Nonetheless they make it as tough to operate there as possible.
JSX has announced a significant expansion to their schedule, with three new and returning seasonal airports, in what to me is one of their most aggressive and exciting moves.
They’re re-entering seasonal Salt Lake City, and adding New York – Florida from convenient and underserved airports with flights beginning in late November and into December.
While American Airlines and Southwest Airlines have used all their lobbying might to try to get the federal government to shut down competitor JSX – because JSX offers a product that consumers prefer to their own – the origin of the fight against JSX stems from the big pilot union. And it wasn’t even JSX they were really concerned with.
Readers often wonder why I care what happens to JSX. I have no ownership interest in them. I have never been paid a dime by them. They no longer even serve my home airport in Austin, having been chased off the real estate. Whether JSX continues to fly benefits me not at all. It’s simply an outrage that consumers keep getting the short end of the stick in favor of entrenched interests.
There are more than 4 million private flights each year operating from private terminals, offering convenient air travel to those who can afford it. As soon as 50,000 flights are made accessible to people otherwise stuck as customers of American Airlines and Southwest, they run to the government to stop it.
Last summer, the FAA outlined an intention to ban JSX and other scheduled public charter operators, largely because they offer a popular, quality product that competitors do not like.
Now the FAA says that it will move forward with a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would – at least in some cases – prevent public charter operators from selling scheduled flights from private terminals, using co-pilots with fewer than 1,500 flying hours.
Former American Airlines Chairman and CEO has waged a public and disingenuous campaign to cajole and scare TSA into quashing competition.
He called operating out of private terminals a “national disaster just waiting to happen” that is “hopefully not being ignored, but not as urgently addressed as I think it should be.” But the safety arguments he makes apply more to his own former airline than to the ones he wants to shut down.
There is no secret what is going on here. A couple of readers have asked why I keep writing about this when a new broadside comes out from the big airlines. It’s because you’re being lied to. You’re just being lied to. And that’s triggering.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
