United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby’s messaging has been clear for years: United must return to New York JFK. But as the path to that return looks increasingly via JetBlue, Kirby is heaping a lot of praise on the carrier he is now seeking a closer partnership with.
With The Goal Of Returning To JFK, United CEO Scott Kirby Has A Lot Of “Respect” For JetBlue, Claims Common Core DNA
Kirby was promptly ushered away at the Polaris 2.0 launch in Brooklyn this week, but Aviation Week caught up with him (thanks to One Mile A Time for flagging this) and, unsurprisingly, he was asked about a potential tie-up with JetBlue and a return to JFK.
He began by reiterating how important it is for United to return to JFK:
“JFK is important to us. One way or another, we need to be back in JFK. I wish United had not pulled out of JFK back in the day.”
United tried to return to JFK during the pandemic, but with only four slots, it failed to offer a meaningful alternative and suspended flights after first downsizing its service from a 767-300 to a 757-200.
One way or another, United will return to JFK. JetBlue, however, marks the easiest path and Kirby had a lot of praise for JetBlue:
“I have a lot of respect for JetBlue, because they have the same core customer DNA that we have. We want lifelong customers who believe in United, who love the brand. JetBlue comes from a similar culture and DNA.”
I agree with Kirby, to an extent. Every customer has lifelong customers who believe in the airline. I also believe United is moving in JetBlue’s direction in terms of offering a competitive product that stands out among its peers.
Even so, JetBlue is all about (or at least was) humanizing the economy class experience. More legroom, free wi-fi, and genuinely delicious snacks and meals mark a unique approach and one that I still love. Sadly, though, the business model has not proven successful and JetBlue finds itself in search of a winning strategy after the merger with Spirit Airlines fell through.
While Kirby said he was not ready to comment on a potential partnership “yet,” he did praise JetBlue’s “Live TV” as a turning point for him:
“I originally thought that’s a gimmick. And then I went and flew it, and I watched people, that was a transformational moment for me. They got it right. I was wrong. They got it right. Part of my journey to being the airline CEO really started with watching how successful JetBlue was for customers.”
Kirby did not stop American Airlines from removing seatback screens while he was President there, but has moved to retrofit the entire mainline narrowbody fleet at United to offer personal screens at each seat, not just streaming content.
What Does Kirby Want?
I’ve discussed my thoughts on a JetBlue – United partnership before, but I still see United as having a lot more to gain than JetBlue. United, of course, wants to return to JFK with a sizeable presence to operate transcontinental flights (and maybe some hub-to-hub flights.
But JetBlue has a dilemma: its bread-and-butter routes are these transcontinental flights. Why would it want to add competition to routes that are already saturated with service?
As I see it, the only way for this to make sense for JetBlue would be if this deal with United is ultimately aimed at acquisition (I think that’s likely) and in the meantime, United will fastrack Star Alliance membership for JetBlue and help it link up with all the Star Alliance carriers that service JFK and Boston (BOS) to fill its other flights.
Otherwise, a frequent flyer partnership for JetBlue is not worth giving up slots and market share at JFK.
CONCLUSION
Kirby continues to court JetBlue, a nudge and a wink to what is to come, even as an official announcement has not been made. As far as I am concerned, the only question is how bold Kirby will be in trying to accelerate an acquisition of JetBlue in the current regulatory environment. Kriby strikes me as the sort of leader who believes that he has a narrow window of opportunity to make what many deem impossible possible. He will certainly try.
Poor B6, I get retro vibes of the slow, painful death spiral of Pan Am, selling off the family jewels….
Might make sense for TA flights out of JFK giving the ongoing hot mess at Newark that’s unlikely to be solved for a long time but they’d have to close the deal soon.
On a completely different note, I don’t know whether you’ve seen this information published by Lufthansa. Of course there may be a possibility that people who thought that their circumstances might cause concerns to border officials have been more likely to stay away in the first place. https://travel-dealz.de/news/lufthansa-zahlen-us-einreise/
Interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Getting back on topic, with the possible exceptions of Aegean and the two main Taiwanese airlines, which unfortunately only work for a tiny proportion of the routes I fly (none of the 3 even fly to my local airport), I cannot imagine any airline tempting me to love their brand. I’ve had great service on quite a few carriers (even on Lufthansa once or twice!) , but most of them are inconsistent in service quality, have some really poor products (e.g. charging extra for basically anything in Y, Eurobusiness seats to the Middle East and Africa without so much as an espresso), are closely linked to regimes of which I’m not a fan, or/and are atrocious at handling IROPS. I don’t even think that I’m an exceptionally demanding customer, so if I can’t love airlines the way I can love restaurants or even hotels (and I am not just talking high-end ones) I’m not confident that many people can.
You don’t take issue with United and Delta becoming an effective duopoly in NYC?
A few groups will take this case to court.
This seems like a nonstarter after the DOJ shut down the AA/B6 collab. UA presence at EWR would be considered part of the same consumer market and DOJ would not allow UA to dominate any more than AA would have. A merger would have similar restrictions and would force UA to divest routes.
This is now a very different US DOJ than any previous DOJ in our lifetime. The new regime is extremely hostile to consumer protection.
Let’s see how deep and fit how long the DOT cuts EWR capacity but UA’s lust for B6 is directly tied to the certain shrinkage of its EWR hub
Boraxo is right. There will be no carving up of NYC between DL and UA no matter how much UA loses at EWR. B6 has no reason to sell assets to UA either. UA’s EWR mess only makes AA B6 and DL stronger
My bet is that United’s executives and BOD think this is the best of times for United to see a big reduction of competition in the market — perhaps by eating JetBlue, given this US Administration is hostile to consumer interests — while also getting back a substantial presence at JFK.
Latisha James (New York) and William Tong (Connecticut) will take United to court in Boston or New York. They should win this case easily.
United Airlines operates a large number of flights to Europe. UAL cannot acquire B6 without approval from EU, a market which B6 also participate.
I don’t think that is going to be the primary concern.
How many EU routes do B6 operate? 4? We’re just not talking a relevant player in that market.