JetBlue Airlines 2008 Annual Report Download - page 11

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Our Value Proposition
Our mission is to bring humanity back to air travel. We do this by offering what we believe to be the best
domestic coach product, and giving our customers more value with their purchase. The elements of our value
proposition include:
High Quality Service and Product. Onboard JetBlue, customers enjoy a distinctive flying experience,
which we refer to as the “JetBlue Experience,” that includes friendly, award-winning, customer service-
oriented employees, new aircraft, roomy leather seats with lots of legroom, 36 channels of free DirecTV»,
100 channels of free XM satellite radio and premium movie channel offerings from JetBlue Features», our
source of first run films from multiple major movie studios and other entertainment features available for
purchase. Our onboard offerings include free and unlimited brand name snacks and beverages, premium
beverages and specially-designed products for our overnight flights. Our customers have told us that the
JetBlue Experience is an important reason why they choose us over other airlines.
We strive to communicate openly and honestly with customers about delays and service disruptions. We
introduced the JetBlue Airways Customer Bill of Rights in 2007, which provides for compensation to
customers who experience avoidable inconveniences (and some unavoidable circumstances) and commits us to
perform at high service standards and holds us accountable if we do not. We are the first and currently the
only major airline to provide such a fundamental benefit for our customers. In 2008, we completed 98.4% of
our scheduled flights. Unlike most other airlines, we have a policy of not overbooking our flights.
All of our aircraft are equipped with leather seats in a comfortable single class layout. Our Airbus
A320 aircraft, with 150 seats, has a wider cabin than both the Boeing 737 and 757, two types of aircraft
operated by many of our competitors. Our Airbus A320 cabin has at least 34 inches of seat pitch at every seat
and as much as 38 inches of seat pitch in our Even More Legroom rows, providing the most legroom in coach
of all U.S. airlines. Our EMBRAER 190 aircraft each have 100 seats that are wider than industry average for
this type of aircraft, arranged in a two-by-two seating configuration with either 32 or 33 inches between rows
of seats. We strive to continually enhance and refine our product based on customer and crewmember
feedback.
In 2008, we introduced refundable fares and new payment options for our customers, and also launched
jetblue.com en español, a Spanish version of our website, http://hola.jetblue.com/enes/.
Low Operating Costs. Our cost structure has allowed us to offer fares lower than many of our
competitors. For the year ended December 31, 2008, our cost per available seat mile, excluding fuel, of
5.94 cents is among the lowest reported by all other major U.S. airlines. Some of the factors that contribute to
our competitive unit costs are:
•High aircraft utilization. By scheduling and operating our aircraft efficiently, we are able to spread
our fixed costs over a greater number of flights and available seat miles. For the year ended
December 31, 2008, our aircraft operated an average of 12.1 hours per day, which we believe is the
highest among all major U.S. airlines. Our airport operations allow us to schedule our aircraft with
minimum ground time.
•Low distribution costs. Our distribution costs are low for several reasons. We use only electronic
tickets, which saves paper, postage, employee time and back-office processing expense. For the year
ended December 31, 2008, 77% of our sales were booked on www.jetblue.com, our least expensive
form of distribution, while 10% were booked through our home-based reservation agents.
•Productive workforce. Our employee efficiency results from flexible and productive work rules,
effective use of part-time employees and the use of technology to automate tasks. For example, most
of our reservation agents work from their homes, providing better scheduling flexibility and allowing
employees to customize their desired schedules. We are continually looking for ways to make our
workforce more efficient through the use of technology without compromising our commitment to
customer service.
•New and efficient aircraft. We maintain a fleet consisting of only two types of aircraft, the Airbus
A320 and the EMBRAER 190, which, with an average age of only 3.6 years, is the youngest fleet of
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