Last week JetBlue had their Quarterly Earnings Conference Call, which we always find very interesting.    Listening to the call, one can not help but hear how much JetBlue loves Boston, which is only good for Worcester’s growth.  

Locally we found out JetBlue has passed 200,000 passengers since their first flight in October of 2013 and that we are “on track” for the installation of CAT III with 18 months remaining in the permitting process until construction begins.

Now that it looks like CAT III will not be up and running until sometime in 2017, will JetBlue wait until then to expand service or will another carrier enter ORH?   Although we feel a west coast destination (Tampa-St Pete-Fort Myers) would have loads equivalent to the current loads (mid 80-‘s) that JetBlue enjoys to Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, we do not see another airline coming to ORH.  

Assume Allegiant, for example, were to come to ORH and have success flying to St Petersburg (PIE), it would be very easy for JetBlue to add Tampa out of ORH and blow Allegiant away.    As a result, we do not see another carrier coming to ORH in the short term.   The question then boils down will JetBlue expand before CAT III is functioning at ORH?    We feel that JetBlue will not wait and will expand at ORH in the short-term and there are three possibilities:

      1. Tampa
      2. Fort Myers
      3. San Juan

 If JetBlue decides to fly to any of these three destinations they would not want to miss peak season, which starts November , and would need 60 days (at least) to get this up and running.   In other words, we would need an announcement by the end of September to have any additional service this winter out of Worcester.  


The other interesting aspect we need to consider is charter business at ORH and the fact Rectrix, the fixed-based operator for customer service at the airport, should have its new $5 million hangar completed this year.  It would be great to get a company like Linear Air, who caters to the charter market, to base one of their jets in this new facility.