Last November, JetBlue started with daily flights to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando on their 100 seat Embraer 190. Initially, we had the 
skeptics, who gave this no chance of success, but this time it was different. The combination of JetBlue and Massport was akin to Parcells and Kraft taking over the lowly Patriots, who actually had a better track record then Worcester Airport.
Even despite the initial comments that prices were not competitive, skeptics have been proven wrong with the load factors consistently being in the 85-90% range even during the off peak months of the summer. Not only are prices competitive, but when you add in the cost of your time to travel, tolls, traffic and parking, Worcester is actually cheaper then the alternatives.
The only times we are not competitive is when you try to travel during high demand weeks like February vacation. Since we only have 100 seats, these sell out very fast. If you try to book tickets last second for these high demand weeks, there are few seats left, the prices will be exorbitant and you will be better served elsewhere.
The only real problem that we have encountered is fog, which has forces some flights to be diverted to Boston or in some cases Providence. Even this one problem is being addressed with the installation of Cat III Landing System that we hope to have up and running some time during 2016. Where do we stand now.
JetBlue and Massort has invested alot of time and money into ORH and they are not making much of a return on four flights per day. In fact, we can guarantee you that they are losing money. They only way that they are going to make money is to get more flights out of Worcester. Just like they started Fort Lauderdale and Orlando last November, they will want to start new services at the same time or thereabouts to tap into the peak season.
Unlike last year when they needed more time, when they announced last April since they were not here yet, they will still need lag time to have additional services for the winter season. We need an announcement this month or next month if we are to get additional service from JetBlue for November. Maybe we could get an announcement in October for December. Other then that if we do not get it by the end of October, then we will continue with these two destinations throughout this winter season.
The next two months, thru October, are huge. If we had to bet, we would bet on more services being announced specifically the Gulf Coast, Fort Myers and Tampa.
