July 1, 2004 -- JetBlue (www.jetblue.com) is New York's hometown airline. Backed by New York's Senator Chuck Schumer, the cool new carrier reimagined clunky old JFK airport as a low-fare hub, and now runs 90 flights a day from its dedicated terminal.
Now, for the first time, they're coming to the nation's most crowded and desirable airport - LaGuardia, a mere eight miles away. JetBlue is starting seven daily round-trips to Fort Lauderdale from LaGuardia in September - tickets are on sale now for $158. But does the borough of Queens need a different JetBlue option?
"This isn't a competitor to Kennedy," said JetBlue spokesman Gareth Edmonson-Jones. "It's truly incremental service for a handful of people who would prefer to fly out of LaGuardia."
Of course, it's also more than that. LaGuardia is slot-controlled: take-off and landing slots there are tightly regulated by the federal government, because otherwise it would be massively overcrowded. When seven slots opened up at LaGuardia, JetBlue jumped at the chance to grab them - and, more importantly, to establish a presence in case one of LaGuardia's bigger airlines downsized. Delta (www.delta.com) and US Airways (www.usair.com) both have major terminals at LaGuardia, and both are in unfortunate financial condition. If nothing dire happens to another carrier, JetBlue will probably stick with its seven slots.
"It's a toehold should another carrier fold; in that case there would be more infrastructure available. We can't anticipate that, obviously," Edmonson-Jones says.
JetBlue hasn't turned away from Kennedy. In fact, they're expanding, big-time. Their Terminal 6 has 14 gates, and JetBlue is using 11 of them, Edmonson-Jones says. Three more gates means the potential for 30 more flights per day. Then the airline plans to move into the currently empty Terminal 5, next door, with 23 more gates, by 2007 - or at the very least grab some gates at adjacent Terminal 4, which JetBlue is already using for flights to the Dominican Republic.
One City, Three (Or Six?) Airports
So why is LaGuardia so desirable? New York has three airports (or six; we'll explain below.) Each one has its own 'personality' and its own pros and cons.
LaGuardia is the closest airport to Manhattan, the smallest, and much more importantly, the easiest and cheapest one to get to by taxicab from Midtown. (A cab costs around $25 plus tip.) So Wall Street bankers and other fast-paced types love LaGuardia, because you can hop in a cab on 57th Street and be at your airport terminal in half an hour, traffic permitting. No trains go to LaGuardia, but if you take the M60 city bus to an elevated subway stop in Queens, you can get into Midtown in under 45 minutes for $2 - as long as you're willing to climb a lot of stairs.
LaGuardia's combination of accessibility and small size are why JetBlue jumped at the chance to establish a beachhead there.
JFK, JetBlue's base, got a bad rap in the past for being huge, unwieldy and difficult to get to. And it still has its detractors, who point out it's a lousy place to connect between airlines - there are too many terminals and people from too many countries speaking too many languages wandering around, which can make transferring there frustrating and confusing.
But the airport has really shaped up in the past few years. The new AirTrain system connects JFK's nine terminals a lot more quickly than the poky old shuttle buses, and also links JFK with the city subway system, so you can get to downtown Manhattan in an hour. (We've done it.) A taxi costs a flat $45, plus tolls and tip - so, say $55 - from JFK to Manhattan. And JFK is still the city's most on-time airport by far. (Newark and LaGuardia are about even, and behind JFK, when it comes to on-time departures and arrivals.)
Newark, in New Jersey, isn't as small and convenient as LaGuardia, nor as distant and huge as JFK. It's a big hub for Continental Airlines, and a better place than JFK to switch planes as there are only three terminals and not so many international flights. A combination of airport monorail and commuter train together called the Newark AirTrain gets you into midtown Manhattan in 50 minutes or so, but the train doesn't run very often late at nights or on weekends, when you'd be better off taking a shuttle bus to midtown.
Okay, that's three airports. Three other airports serve the fringes of the New York area. Islip is 50 miles east of the city, but it's notable because it's the closest place Southwest (www.southwest.com) stops. You can get into the city by shuttle and commuter train in about 2 hours.
White Plains serves New York's Westchester and Connecticut suburbs; Newburgh serves Rockland County and northern New Jersey. Both are not convenient to the city.
We say, welcome JetBlue to LaGuardia, and have fun, New Yorkers and Floridians. Just don't expect to see JetBlue shifting its focus - JFK is Big Blue's home, and it looks like it'll be that way for years to come.
