JetBlue on the up

The transcontinental market in the United States has always been an innovation incubator, rarified air where airlines premiered their most persuasive new products. Consider the latest bid for the premium pocketbook: JetBlue is introducing lie-flat seats on the transcon during the second quarter of next year. They debut on the carrier’s new A321s. Look for them on routes from New York JFK to LAX, and Kennedy to San Francisco.

So where’s the innovation and how’s this different? Up front, in the pointy end of the airplane, JetBlue is arranging some unique space for premium passengers. The lie-flats will be arrayed in a 2-1 configuration. Rows 1, 3 and 5 will offer 2x2 seating; rows 2 and 4 will sport private suites, with one seat on each side of the aisle. The doors can be closed for sky-high privacy. This ain’t your same old airplane.

To be sure, private suites are nothing new aloft. Among others, Asiana has them in First Class. So does Emirates. But those carriers embed them in widebodies. The A321 is a narrowbody airplane, one employed primarily for domestic and shorter overwater runs.

You’ll pay for the privilege of sitting up front, but perhaps not as much as you’d expect. “Transcontinental routes have had high premium fares we believe we can beat,” says Dave Barger, JetBlue’s CEO. The carrier contends when measured on an industry-wide basis, airline revenue derived from the blue-ribbon JFK-Los Angeles and JFK-San Francisco markets is a full 50 percent higher than any other route in the U.S. On a per-mile basis, the rates are “much higher” says the carrier. That’s where the combination of premium product and comparatively (the term is relative here) lower fares will be persuasive, Barger believes, in “invigorat[ing] the market.”

Lest you become bored all shut up in your private suite at 35,000 feet (impossible if you have a good window seat) JetBlue will begin installing Fly-Fi on its fleet by the end of this year. It’s a new high-speed, satellite-based wi-fi product the airline says will offer true broadband speeds.

All of this could just trigger a sky quake of sorts on the transcon. It will be instructive to see how the competition responds. There’s already ferment afoot on the continent-spanning routes. American Airlines will be getting its own specially-configured A321s beginning later this year. They’ll be four-class affairs. United is redoing its dedicated fleet of 757s and rendering them two-class carriages. Meanwhile Virgin America already offers its own highly-rated premium product on the transcon. Delta rounds out the nonstop competition from New York to the West Coast.