Is JetBlue Planning First Class?
It's one of many questions I asked Marty St. George this week at the Skift Aviation Forum in Dallas.
Dear readers,
One of the more widely circulated rumors in the industry is that JetBlue is evaluating a domestic first class-style product. Some of you call it “Junior Mint.”1 It does make sense, given the margins and demand other airlines report from their domestic premium cabins, and how JetBlue reports that it is making good money sending flat-beds to Phoenix and other Western destinations.
When I interviewed JetBlue president Marty St. George this week at the Skift Aviation Forum in Dallas, I asked him about it. It’s happening, right?
"I've heard that rumor," he said, to laughs.2 "I can't comment on anything like that. I will say we are looking at the best way to use the real estate on the airplane. It's too soon to make an announcement on that kind of thing. I would say that based on the success we have seen from Mint, and even from Even More, on RASM growth, it's certainly something we have thought about."
St. George is an industry favorite and one of the smarter minds in aviation, and I'm glad to see him back on the conference circuit just five years after he was pushed out of JetBlue as chief commercial officer. Now as the airline’s president (he returned in February) he’s on a mission to return JetBlue to profitability for the first time since before the pandemic. And while cost is a focus (this is still a LCC) St. George is a revenue guy at heart, and the architect of two industry-leading premium products — JetBlue’s Mint, and United’s P.S. (R.I.P.). So yes: I think he’s going to do a true premium domestic product.
What we do know now is that St. George’s team is working on an update of JetBlue’s premium economy, now called Even More Space, and soon to be called EvenMore.3 If it comes with a blocked middle (I doubt it will), we might assume JetBlue won’t also launch a first class-style cabin. But if it’s merely a clone of what United, Delta, and American offer, I suspect we might see recliners in addition to extra-legroom seats. JetBlue announced upcoming premium economy improvements during its last earnings call, but said nothing about product attributes. I asked St. George on Tuesday for more details; he declined to share.
"This is probably not the best time to announce it," he said. "Or goal is to make sure we have a very competitive product. I think we've looked at what some of our competitors are doing with their premium economy domestically, and certainly we are looking at that and trying to figure out what's best for our customers."
Any time a LCC introduces a new premium product, some naysayers point out that current premium trends cannot last forever, and that leisure-oriented airlines eventually may wish they had more standard economy seats. But St. George said he’s among many executives who believe this boom isn’t just a cycle, but the new normal.
"We've looked at the premium revenue trends back into the teens, and this really started probably in 2011 or 2012,” he said. “We've got very clear data showing buy-up revenue, and customers are buying more premium products since then.” That’s almost everywhere, he added, including in leisure and VFR markets like the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, where conventional wisdom might point to a commodity product selling best.
I like St. George, just like I appreciate any executive who honestly answers questions, and doesn’t shy away from accepting blame when things don’t go right. In our chat, he revealed information about the huge losses JetBlue incurred during its nationwide expansion, and shared his views on how the network will evolve. He also discussed why JetBlue changed its stance on lounges, what the airline is looking for in a domestic partner, why JetBlue is taking a smaller share of managed business travel, and when the airline again might turn a profit.
Let's take a look at some of the highlights.