JetBlue Airways Soars Amid Global Aviation Slowdown

October 21, 2008 11:46 a.m. EST

New York, NY (AHN) - While the rest of the global aviation industry is slowing down, New York-based JetBlue Airways is on an expansion mode. The air carrier will add more flight and ground personnel and destinations in 2009.

According to Jim Celeste, general manager of JetBlue at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, for next year the airline plans to hire 100 more pilots, 100 more flight attendants and 100 extra ground crew.

This winter, JetBlue will add more flights to the Caribbean from Logan, starting with a non-stop service from Boston to St. Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles beginning Feb. 14, 2009. It will also offer starting Feb. 12, 2009 daily non-stop flights to Aruba and Cancun, Mexico and one more Cancun service on Saturdays.

Last month, JetBlue opened its terminal at Terminal 5 in John F. Kennedy International Airport, one of the first terminals to open post 9/11. The new terminal has 40 ticket counters and 65 e-ticket kiosks on both sides of the check-in lobby where it has a 20-lane security checkpoint.

From September 2007 to August 2008, JetBlue flew 3.73 million air travelers from its New York hub. When aviation fuel price soared, the air carrier had to cut three Boston non-stop routes, although other airlines operating at Logan had larger flight reductions. Delta stopped eight flights, American and U.S. Airways cut their October seat capacity by 10 percent.

The air carrier is also benefiting from charters.

Henry Harteveldt, principal airline analyst of Forrester Research, said JetBlue's growth while the rest of the aviation industry face a bleak outlook is the result of careful planning and opening the door when opportunity knocks. "Their growth reflects filling in gaps in routes that other airlines have stopped serving or are no longer serving as well as they could be," Harteveldt told Boston Globe.