Charlotte’s airfares are keep reasonably competitive in part because of the presence of two low-fare airlines, AirTran and JetBlue. Time to catch up on some strange interesting developments by the two airlines.
First though their summer 2009 offerings from CLT to provide some context:
AirTran: 4x Atlanta, 3 x Baltimore, 1 x Orlando
JetBlue: 4 x JFK, 2 x Boston, 1 x Ft. Lauderdale
AirTran has earned a reputation for being a little flaky with their offerings. We get to see some of that from Charlotte this spring. This month, they’re offering continuing with their off-season typical service pattern, 3 x Atlanta, 2 x Baltimore, and Orlando just on Saturdays and Sundays. In April, Atlanta goes to four daily, before becoming two a day for most of May (?!?) and going back to three a day on June 1.
Charlotte-Orlando goes daily again on May 1. No sign of the third BWI flight though. So it looks like six flights day this summer, as compared to eight last year. It’s also rather obvious that they aren’t doing so hot on their flights to Hotlanta and beyond, as that’s their big hub.
JetBlue’s currently offers 3 x JFK, 1 x BOS, 1 x FLL. It’s big base at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport currently has a runway closed for repair through the summer, which limits operations, so no 4th CLT-JFK this summer.
The Ft. Lauderdale flight is becoming seasonal, with the season ending on April 12. For that, CLT gets a second Boston flight on April 13. A third BOS is added on May 1, and then a forth in July(!). So yes, more Boston service than New York for parts of the summer. Whether they can really fill that many seats at yield remains to be seen. Will also be interesting to see how much Boston service they offer next fall and winter.
