JetBlue/Cape Air

Harry--thanks for the story. I have it below... This is bascially a variation of our idea of have a plane from ORH to feed the JetBlue hub, not to mention NYC.


Cape Air seeks deal with JetBlue

Cape Air, the top year-round carrier from Logan International Airport in Boston to Cape Cod and the islands, has been facing a May 2007 deadline to clear out of Logan's Terminal C to make way for rapidly growing JetBlue Airways Corp.

But now both JetBlue and Cape Air are expressing hope they can work out a deal that keeps Cape Air at its current gate, operating as a kind of connector-feeder for JetBlue.
From Logan, Cape Air flies nine-seat propeller planes to Hyannis, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and Provincetown. On summer weekends, when Cape Air has diverted extra planes to New England from winter operations in Florida and the Caribbean, it often ranks as the busiest airline at Logan -- measured by flight arrivals and departures, that is, not total passengers.

At Logan, Cape Air occupies a gate in Terminal C that is among four the Massachusetts Port Authority has agreed to lease to JetBlue by November 2008. JetBlue now uses seven gates to offer about 45 daily departures, and hopes to expand to more than 100 in coming years.
In separate interviews last week, the chief executives of both airlines said they hope to reach a deal that keeps Cape Air in JetBlue's terminal.

''We like the location, and we think our customers like being able to connect to JetBlue" without having to go through security again, said Daniel A. Wolf, who is president of Cape Air and, on summer Saturdays, one of its several dozen pilots. ''We bring potentially a lot of valuable customers to JetBlue." JetBlue chief executive David Neeleman, in an interview at The Boston Globe Travel Show Friday, agreed that ''it'd be great to see if there's a way to work that out. They run a really great operation."

Neeleman said that having Cape Air stay in Terminal C to feed passengers into JetBlue's network, and connect travelers coming from JetBlue cities in the United States to the Cape and Islands, ''would probably be a pretty good option for Cape Air. It would make a lot of sense for us." Thomas J. Kinton Jr., Massport's aviation director, said finding a home for Cape Air is just one of many gate-space problems at Logan.

Massport also is trying to find new gates for fast-growing AirTran Airways and to help bankrupt Delta Air Lines fill gate space at its half-empty $500 million Terminal A. ''In these discussions, it's always paramount for us what's best for the customer, and the customer is both the passenger and the airline," Kinton said. ''At the same time, it has to work for the airport from a gate-management standpoint."

A sixth Logan runway set to open late this year for small planes, called 14/32, is ideal for handling Cape Air's Cessna 402s, and that could argue in favor of moving Cape Air to Terminal A or B to be closer to that runway, Kinton said. ''A lot has to play out," Kinton said. ''We'll be in a lot of discussions."