JetBlue’s Popular Mint Business Class Disrupted All of Its Rivals
Photo Credit: By the end of this quarter, JetBlue will have sleeper seats on 34 aircraft. The airline started in 2000 with an all-coach configuration. JetBlue Airways
Skift Take
JetBlue's not the most profitable U.S. airline. It's not the most on-time. It doesn't have nearly the selection of destinations as its larger competitors. But the airline has succeeded in disrupting the industry with its innovative business class product.
No U.S. airline has disrupted the premium market recently more than JetBlue Airways, the first carrier to bring (somewhat) affordable lie-flat seats to domestic routes. While the product has been more successful than JetBlue executives expected, don't look for it to expand to all routes.
JetBlue only wants to put it on longer flights where customers will reliably pay for it, executives said this week at the JP Morgan Aviation, Transportation & Industrials Conference.
"Once you get to about 2,000 miles, I think we're in good shape from there," said Marty St. George, the airline's executive vice president of commercial and planning. "Under 2,000 is a little bit challenging. We've had a lot of customer demand to fly in places like New York to Palm Beach, New York to Fort Lauderdale. But we think it's just too short a flight actually to j
