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Worcester Airport suffers in JetBlue-American agreement

  • Posted by Commute & Travel (Sponsor: Fuller RV) January 17, 2021 - Filed in Commute & Travel - #Worcester  #travel  #jetblue  #Worcester Regional Airport  #American Airlines  #MassPort  #Thisweekinworcester  - 9,515 views

    JetBlue’s Worcester-JFK route is dropped

    Worcester Regional Airport, which lost major air carrier services during the COVID-19 pandemic, recently suffered another blow.

    The U.S. Department of Transportation recently allowed JetBlue Airways service between Worcester Regional Airport and JFK Airport in New York to be exempt from a major cooperation agreement with American Airlines. The exemption allows JetBlue to drop the service to JFK that was announced with great fanfare in 2017 and launched in 2018. 

    Terageorge, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

    The DoT recently closed its review of a proposed Northeast Alliance between JetBlue and American. The Alliance gives the airlines the OK for an “unprecedented” level of coordination of schedules and routes in the Northeast, including to and from Logan Airport in Boston.

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    According to an article on Nasdaq.com: “American Airlines and JetBlue are planning for a level of cooperation that is unprecedented among major U.S. airlines (excluding mergers, of course). When they initially announced the partnership last year, American and JetBlue pointed to codesharing, slot swaps at New York's LaGuardia and JFK Airports, and reciprocal frequent-flyer benefits as some advantages of teaming up.

    “The DOT agreement reveals that the two airlines plan to go a step further, though, by actively coordinating their schedules on routes to and from New York and Boston. That will allow them to offer more connecting opportunities and provide better time-of-day coverage on routes they both serve today.”

    Despite numerous concessions on part of the airlines, JetBlue service between Worcester Regional and New York is dropped. In fact, it is the first stipulation listed in the agreement:

    “JetBlue agrees not to exit any non-seasonal, nonstop JFK route it served as of February 2020 other than JFK-LGB, JFK-OAK, and JFK-ORH for the terms of this agreement,” it reads.

    ORH is the three letter designation for Worcester Regional Airport.

    According to the Nasdaq article, among the concessions the airlines gave in exchange for the government OK, includes selling slots at JFK, they are “forbidden from discussing pricing or revenue management strategies or attempting to influence each other's competitive behavior,”  they will be required to sell additional slots if they do not meet goals for growth, and “JetBlue agreed not to exit any markets it served year-round from JFK as of last February,” except the list of three that included Worcester-JFK.

    Before suspended service to Worcester Regional Airport because of the COVID-19 pandemic, JetBlue offered flights to and from JFK, Orlando International Airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

    According to a Jan. 5 article on ThisWeekInWorcester.com, “JetBlue said a reopening date has not yet been determined.”

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