Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

As you all know the service at IND has taken a pretty big beating over the last year. The route map is now full of holes. We've lost almost all service west of the Rockies. The Indianapolis market is a rapidly growing one. The local economy while hurting like everywhere isn't as bad as many places since our local economy is quite diverse. Unlike some areas our economy isn't dominated by a single industry like the auto or banking industry.

IND has a top notch facility centrally located and well connected by a number of different interstate highways. IND does not operate a passenger air hub and in all honesty no longer serves as a focus city. This opens the door for a new carrier to come in and build up their network. They aren't competing against two large focus city operations like the ones that exist in St. Louis with Southwest Airlines and American Airlines. No hub and focus city competition like what you'd find in Milwaukee with Midwest Airlines and AirTran Airways. No hub like you'd find in Cincinnati.

The door is wide open for an airline like Jet Blue to come in and fill the service void that covers most of the western U.S. They could operate free of competition or in some cases only go up against one airline operating no more than 1 or 2 flights a day to Indianapolis. Jet Blue could be the only carrier to serve Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego, Austin, Sarasota, Jacksonville, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, and Palm Beach. It would be only the second carrier serving Los Angeles where Northwest Airlines flies once daily. It would be only the second carrier to Las Vegas where Southwest Airlines flies twice daily. It would be the 2nd carrier to Ft. Lauderdale where AirTran Airways only flies 4 times weekly. It would be the second carrier to Raleigh-Durham where Northwest Airlines flies only once daily.

Jet Blue could expand that list of cities even more by flying to their top destinations like Orlando, New York-JFK and Boston. They could open up the DC market even more by flying to Baltimore where currently only Southwest Airlines flies. They could quickly serve 18 destinations. Throw in seasonal service to popular destinations like Cancun and San Juan and Jet Blue could quickly service 20 destinations with possibly as many as 60 daily departures. It would allow them to fill the service holes in Indianapolis and connect their east and west coast airports.

The central location of Indianapolis would allow Jet Blue to reach all airports it serves within the 48 states using any of the jets it has in the fleet. They would be able to fly a 100 seat E-190 to the west coast if needed instead of the larger A320. Hoosiers would also flock to Jet Blue's low cost carrier pricing. The nature of the Indianapolis market along with the geographical location and the void in the air network here makes the city a perfect match for Jet Blue.

We have the space. Come on over.

Member

Joined: 11 Oct 2006
Posts: 248
Location: Lexington ky

that would be great but Columbus didnt work out so they would probally stay away from Indy

Member

Joined: 22 Jun 2009
Posts: 8
Location:

I also think IND is underserved, and the facilities warrent better service. I do support (and would very much like to see) JetBlue having a modest sized operation at IND, I'm not sure that JetBlue is modest enough to serve an airport between Pittsbugh and the Colorado River.

That being said, AirTran seems to be obsessed with making MKE work, and with WN going there (as well as Midwest and Northwest/Delta's current operations), somebody's going to have to downsize. If AirTran concedes, does anybody see them bringing their current MKE level of service to IND?

Other than that, I don't necessarily see anybody coming in or adding service. Delta/NW is obviously done here, US Airways (like stated otherwise) seems to ignore our region and was here once before. Southwest...maybe they'll add Nashville with Jacksonville being cancelled. I certainly don't see Virgin or Alaska coming here. Spirit's structure would only be good for those going to Caribbean/Latin America, we're too big for Allegiant, and Jet America is just that (one jet right now). So, I guess let's see what AirTran has up their sleeves.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

Honestly the MKE operation is a bit of a joke. They are having to give away tickets to fill the jets. I was checking out advanced purchases to the west coast and there is no way they can make money on a $95 on way to Seattle with oil at $70 per barrel. You can hit most of their west coast destinations from MKE for about $105 or less one way with advanced purchase.

FL tried that approach in MDW and it failed for them. They were practically giving away seats. I remember someone posted on Airliners.net the profitability of all the AirTran stations and MKE performed horribly.