April 17, 2008

Nancy Pyle welcomes JetBlue Airways CEO

Despite recent news about some airlines going out of business, merging or going into bankruptcy, JetBlue Airways has announced it will begin flights from Mineta San Jose Airport to Long Beach beginning next month.

A group of city and airport officials, including District 10 Councilmember Nancy Pyle, meet JetBlue CEO David Barger on his recent visit to San Jose. JetBlue recently announced three new flights from Mineta San Jose International Airport to Long Beach and will add a second daily flight to New York’s JFK on May 1. The airline also offers a daily San Jose to Boston flight. Pyle is chair of the city’s Community and Economic Development Committee.

District 10 Councilmember Nancy Pyle was on hand April 7 to welcome JetBlue CEO David Barger when he arrived for a visit to San Jose when he flew into our city’s own international airport.

“It was wonderful to meet David and discuss the new flights that JetBlue is bringing to San Jose. Our airport is going to be a world-class facility and it takes world-class airlines to ensure that San Jose residents can reach any and all of their desired destinations,” Pyle said in a release.

In February, JetBlue announced the start of three daily nonstop flights between Mineta San Jose and Long Beach Airport beginning May 21. These new flights will offer Silicon Valley business and leisure travelers an additional convenient method of access to southern California. JetBlue will also add a second daily nonstop flight between San Jose and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport leaving mid-day beginning May 1.

Operating out of Terminal C at SJC since June 2004, JetBlue is a low-fare, low-cost passenger airline that provides high-quality customer service. It also provides daily San Jose/Boston service.

The newly announced flights mark the West Coast debut of the company’s new Embraer-190 aircraft. The full-size E190 is a quiet 100-seat jet that provides passengers 36 channels of free live DIRECTV® programming and more than 100 channels of XM Satellite Radio. Rows consist of two leather seats on each side, allowing fliers to avoid the dreaded middle seat on each and every flight. The airline also offers complimentary in-flight e-mail and instant messaging services.

After a series of problems last winter when passengers were stuck for hours on planes forced to remain on New York runways, JetBlue now offers its own Customer Bill of Rights, with meaningful and specific compensation for customers inconvenienced by service disruptions within its control. The airline services 53 cities with 550 daily flights. All seats are assigned, all travel is ticket less, all fares are one-way and an overnight stay is never required.

Mineta San Jose International Airport is owned and operated by the city of San Jose. It served 10.7 million passengers and handled approximately 209 million pounds of air cargo in 2007. The airport has an average of 166 flights a day on 13 domestic and international carriers to 30 nonstop destinations.