Page 11 - World Airnews Magazine December 2020

AIRLINES

A PERFECT TIME FOR

A LONDON LAUNCH

operator on transatlantic routes is viewed Operating narrowbodies on transatlantic

as a potentially disruptive event in a market routes means the investment required “is
etBlue Airways plans to launch trans- that has been largely dominated by legacy much lower” than would be required for

Jatlanti c services in the second half of network carriers. widebody operations, he notes.
2021 amid what it expects to be a resur- Hayes declined to confirm which Lon- “The LR really is just a fuel tank… It’s not

gence in demand for air travel, according to don airport JetBlue plans serve when it that we’re buying a different fleet type, it’s

the airline’s chief executive Robin Hayes. launches services, or which other European not that we need a different pilot group,

“We actually think that launching flights destinations it might seek to fly to, but it’s not that we need different simulators,”

to London next summer, probably in Q3, states that the 13 Airbus A321LR and 13 Hayes said.

is the perfect time to introduce all of my A321XLR jets the airline has on order are Ultimately, if the transatlantic venture does

friends in the UK and in Europe to what I “really designed around our plans for our not work, “what we’ll do is we’ll take the fuel

consider the very positive effect of flying European footprint over time”. tank out of the airplanes and we’ll fly them

JetBlue,” Hayes said during the World Trav- Those new aircraft – the first A321LR is somewhere else”, he said, adding that the
el Market conference. due for delivery early next year – will fea- “downside risk for us is close to zero”.

Many travellers “just want to wait a little ture an updated version of JetBlue’s Mint “But we are 100% committed to this - we

bit longer to feel comfortable about flying”, premium product. are 100% confident that it will work,” he said.

Hayes said, adding that he expects the 2021 “London is the largest metro area JetBlue JetBlue announced last year that it
summer season to be characterised by “tre- doesn’t yet serve from both Boston and planned to introduce London its first Euro-

mendous pent-up demand for travel”. New York, and we could not be more pean destination, as part of its Focus City

JetBlue’s planning assumption is that “all thrilled to be changing that in the years strategy.

of our leisure travel will be largely recov- ahead,” said Joanna Geraghty, president The airline will operate this transatlantic

ered by the end of 2021”, he said. and chief operating officer, JetBlue in a service with the Airbus A321neoLR, the

The carrier announced in early 2019 that previous statement. newest aircrafts in JetBlue's fleet. JetBlue

it planned to launch transatlantic flights “A few years down the line, I see a world is also developing a long-haul friendly on-
some time in 2021, with services to Lon- where we have a number of all-year-round board experience, with spacious and com-

don from New York John F Kennedy and markets to Europe… and there will be a fortable seating, live television, high-speed
Boston, but noted in May this year that number of seasonal markets, and then Fly-Fi broadband internet, and more.
there would be a “timing impact” from the in the winter we’ll point the airplanes at Currently, the European Union is still

coronavirus crisis. things that we do today, like the Caribbe- barring US citizens from entering its
The arrival of an established low-cost an,” Hayes said. countries. Q

World Airnews | December 2020
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