Southwest and jetBlue start to tussle

Item 1 -- JetBlue Airways today announces it will begin service between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Columbus, OH with up to four daily nonstop flights starting October 3, and one daily nonstop flight between Boston's Logan International Airport and Columbus starting October 18. Port Columbus spokeswoman Angie Tabor said the Columbus Regional Airport Authority will grant JetBlue a year's free lease on a gate at Port Columbus and will waive landing fees for the same periods as an incentive for the new carrier. She did not immediately have a value of the fee waivers. But Tabor called the incentives "quite substantial." As a new carrier, she said the airline also will receive $75,000 to spend on marketing the new service. Readers may recall we did a piece on Columbus-based startup Skybus some time ago. This news clearly is a headshot to Skybus – we are not sure if its fatal. However, as you know, headshots are usually fatal. What is interesting for us is this jetBlue news and the news below from Southwest. Item 2 -- Southwest Airlines Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly announced Southwest's fares and flights today during a media conference at Washington Dulles International Airport. The airline starts service to its 63rd city on Oct. 5, 2006. Southwest Airlines will begin its Dulles service with 12 daily nonstop departures to the following cities: Chicago Midway (seven daily), Las Vegas (one daily), Orlando (two daily), and Tampa Bay (two daily). Now rumors are that jetBlue might announce another city this week and it may be St. Louis. But, seven daily Midway-Dulles trips? This is definitely a defensive move since the hot rumor is that AirTran is going to jump on Dulles-Midway next. This move by Southwest should effectively quell that idea. Still, seven dailies is heavy given their nine dailies in the Midway-Baltimore market. This move makes Southwest an immediate competitor in the market, especially for business traffic with that level of frequency to the DC area. Can Phoenix and Houston be far behind? The fun part; will Manchester (NH) or Providence be next from Dulles? Sooner or later these two airlines were bound to run into each other. Now its coming to pass. Fortunately, for people living in the Midwest and Northeast, this means better choices and lower fares. Of course what is interesting to note is the natural behavior of these two carriers – they are connecting their core cities, although they don’t use the word “hub”. The LCCs are starting to cannibalize each other's terroritory. An apocalypse among the LCCs is starting. JAJ