All Things Travel: JetBlue Helps Logan Land New International Airlines
BOSTON (CBS) – Logan Airport's two new international airlines are getting valuable help from Boston's No. 1 domestic carrier.
Emirates and Turkish airlines, which have started flights to the Middle East from Boston, have signed code-sharing agreements with JetBlue Airways. Code-sharing allows the airlines to sell joint tickets beyond the Boston gateway all the way to Buffalo and Florida.
JetBlue is expanding its Boston presence with a planned addition of gates in Terminal C and will occupy the entire terminal and remodel many of its gates and surrounding areas in the next two years. The carrier now flies more than 25 percent of Logan's passengers.
Massport is beginning a $100 million expansion of Terminal E to help accommodate the four new international flights that have been added in the past three years. Hainan Airlines will begin nonstop flights to Beijing next month.
April traffic announced this week show JetBlue's traffic for the month of April up s6 percent to 3,177,000. Their system-wide load factor was 84 percent.
JetBlue, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary at Logan this year, has just received the low-cost airline highest honors for the 10th consecutive year in the J.D. Power 2014 North America Satisfaction Study.
JetBlue has also launched successful service from Worcester Regional Airport in the past six months.
To celebrate more than 50,000 customers using the Worcester airport, the airline has announced plans to recognize academic achievement of local high school students, Massport and JetBlue are donating pairs of Florida tickets to the valedictorians from Worcester,Auburn and Leicester.
JetBlue is not without its growth problems. A "Wall Street Journal" article this week reported that the airline had experienced a management shake-up and its CEO, Dave Barger, may step down.
Its pilots have recently voted to join a union, the first of the company's employees to take that step.
JetBlue may also be facing more competition at Logan next year. Southwest Airlines is scheduled to officially complete its merger with Air Tran on December 28.
American and USAirways are also stepping up their merger program.
Bob Weiss reports on business travel on Mondays at 5:55 a.m. on WBZ NewsRadio 1030.
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