JetBlue Airlines 2013 Annual Report Download - page 4

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Please find page 4 of the 2013 JetBlue Airlines annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

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An example is our Mint product offering which we previewed in 2013. Aircraft equipped with Mint will offer
16seats with a fully lie-flat bed, an upgraded live television system with 100 channels of DirecTV, complimentary
food and beverage service and amenity kits. We believe Mint will offer the best transcontinental premium product
in the two most lucrative markets in the United States: New York (JFK) to Los Angeles and New York (JFK) to
San Francisco. We plan to begin Mint service in June 2014.
Fly-Fi™ – JetBlue’s Ka-band satellite connectivity solution – is another example of how we have evolved the
JetBlue Experience to meet ever-changing customer demands. Fly-Fi™ for the first time brings travelers real
broadband internet in the sky and the same at-home internet speeds to which they are accustomed, a significant
leap ahead of connectivity offerings available on other U.S. airlines today. We expect installations to be complete
on our Airbus fleet in 2014 and we plan to begin installations on our EMBRAER 190 aircraft thereafter.
In 2013, we also continued to enhance TrueBlue, our customer loyalty program. Now, TrueBlue points never
expire, and through Family Pooling, families and small groups can now earn and share TrueBlue points free of
charge.
High-Value Geography
While JetBlue’s network represents just five percent of the U.S. domestic market, “we fly where the people are.”
We compete in highly populated areas in some of the most lucrative travel markets in the country, including
New York, Boston and Florida.
We continue to perform very well in our New York hometown. We recently celebrated the fifth anniversary of
our award-winning Terminal 5 at JFK Airport. Construction of T5i, our international expansion at JFK Airport, is
on track and scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of this year.
In Boston, we continue to successfully execute our strategy to attract both business and leisure customers
by adding routes and frequencies and improving our product offering. At year end, our domestic operations
accounted for more than 25% of all domestic flights in Boston’s Logan Airport.
Looking ahead, we see tremendous opportunity for profitable growth at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International
Airport. We believe the demographics of South Florida together with relatively low airport costs give Fort
Lauderdale-Hollywood attractive growth potential, particularly to points south throughout the Caribbean and
Latin America. The significant capital investments being made by the Broward County Aviation Department to
modernize and expand the airport’s capacity will facilitate our growth plans.
We are also very excited about our acquisition of 12 slot pairs to expand service at Ronald Reagan Washington
National Airport (DCA) an airport we have worked tirelessly to gain access to for more than a decade. Reagan
National is a high-fare market with a demographic very well suited to our business model. We plan to operate
up to 30 roundtrips per day at Reagan National by year end.
Our airline partnerships continued to generate high-margin passenger revenue and expand the scope of our
network through which we now offer customers access to 900 destinations worldwide. In 2013, our airline
partnership portfolio expanded by 9 to a total of 31 partners. As the largest domestic carrier in Boston and
at New York’s JFK Airport (the largest U.S. international gateway), we believe we are well-positioned to offer
significant value to our current and potential airline partners.
Competitive Costs
Maintaining a relative cost advantage to our network carrier competitors is critical to our ability to offer an
industry-leading product and a reasonable fare.
Fuel, of course, remains our largest cost, comprising 38% of total operating expenses in 2013. Today, we have
one of the youngest, most fuel-efficient fleets among U.S. airlines. Focus on efficient operating procedures, such
as single-engine taxi, along with investments in our fleet and infrastructure will enable us to continue improving
fuel efficiency and to keep costs low.
In 2013, we announced significant changes to our fleet plan which we believe will significantly change our cost
dynamic over the long run. As part of this effort, we deferred 24 EMBRAER 190 aircraft, converted 18 A320
delivery positions to A321s and ordered 15 additional A321ceo aircraft and 20 additional A321neo aircraft. In
addition to significant fuel savings, we believe these actions will enable JetBlue to better match capacity with
demand throughout our network.