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JetBlue seeks approval for - Bogota, Colombia?
Published by AirlineFanatic | Filed under jetblue airways
I have to say I didn’t see this one coming. According to the South Florida Sun Sentinal, JetBlue has filed for approval to provide service between Bogota, Colombia and Orlando, FL beginning April 1st, 2008. This service would be followed by seven weekly flights between Bogota and Ft. Lauderdale, FL beginning October 1st, 2008. The new service isn’t a sure thing however, as American Airlines currently holds the authority for the 14 slots JetBlue would like to use.
American has of course not used these 14 slots for more than five years, and why would they? They hold the monopoly on flights between Florida and Colombia, and so it’s in their interests to keep seat inventory low, and prices high. Now that doesn’t seem very fair to me, plus who actually likes flying American anyway? I hope regulators give JetBlue the chance to compete on this route and drive down costs while increasing frequency. International travel, particularly in the less competitive Latin American market, has lagged far behind domestic competition for a while. Its about time it caught up, even just a little bit.
This filing is also an interesting departure in strategy for JetBlue. Their international exposure to date has been restricted to Caribbean islands and holiday destinations. Now I’ve never been to Bogota, but I’m pretty sure its no Aruba. I guess they see a consistent flow of business traffic, which makes sense as Miami is very Latin America focused.
Lastly and certainly least, Spirit Airlinesis also in the running for these flights, and they have a greater preexisting exposure to Central America. I’m not bullish on their chances at all though, what with their internet inept CEO and poor customer experiences. In my opinion having no flights at all would be better than letting Spirit start new service.
I’ll keep an eye on this and see how it plays out.
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