Noise plan putting JetBlue at risk
Carrier’s many curfew violations at Long Beach Airport prompt proposed crackdown.
JetBlue Airways, the busiest carrier at Long Beach Airport, has violated the city’s noise curfew so often this year that if a proposed noise crackdown is adopted, the New Yorkbased carrier could face being shut out of the airport.
Violations of the city’s noise curfew have increased so much in the last six months that Long Beach Airport officials are proposing a fine increase of as much as 3,200% and the authority to boot a carrier that has more than 20 violations in a 24-month period.
JetBlue Airways violated the city’s noise curfew 94 times in the first five months of 2017, far more than any other carrier at the facility. The next closest is Delta Air Lines and its regional carrier Sky West, with three violations combined in the same period.
JetBlue blamed many of the violations on “air traffic control related issues at some of the busiest airports on the East Coast and in Northern California.”
“JetBlue is working with elected officials to mitigate these instances,” the airline said in a statement.
The city imposes noise limits on commercial flights between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.
In the first six months of 2017, Long Beach recorded 133 violations of the curfew at the airport, compared with 134 violations for all of 2016, according to city data. The city released individual carriers’ violations for only the five-month period.
The fine for violating the curfew is $100 for the first through third offenses and $300 thereafter. The fine hasn’t been increased since it was adopted in 1995.
In response to the increase in violations, airport officials have asked the Long Beach City Council to consider raising the fine to $2,500 for the first through fifth violations during any 24-month period and increasing it to $3,000 to $10,000 for additional violations in the same period.
Under the proposed new rules, any carrier with more than 20 violations in a 24month period can have its operating privileges at the airport terminated or limited.
The city first must collect comments from the airlines and the community before changes can be brought to the City Council for a vote, which is expected in the first three months of 2018, according to a city report. Southwest still has power over rivals
When Southwest Airlines was still an upstart in the 1990s, a federal study found that the low fares offered by the Dallas-based carrier forced its competitors to slash prices in those markets the airline entered.
It was called the Southwest Effect.
Although the airline is now the third-busiest U.S. carrier, Southwest still has the power to force its rivals to lower their fares, according to a new study from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.
The study by business professor Alan R. Beckenstein and Brian M. Campbell, a principal at a Virginia aviation company, looked at 109 daily nonstop markets that Southwest Airlines entered from 2012 to 2015.
The average fares for all carriers dropped at least 15% in 56 of those markets after Southwest Airlines entered and 74 markets had average fares that dropped at least 10%, the study found. Only 12 had fare increases after Southwest Airlines stepped in.
“It’s such a powerful and simple force,” Beckenstein said. “It’s unbelievable.”
The study found that Southwest Airlines had the biggest effect on fares even when low jet fuel costs and the entry of other low-cost airlines were considered.
And the drop in fares has helped boost demand on those routes by an average of 28%, according to the study.
The carrier began operating as Southwest Airlines in 1971, serving Texas airports with four planes and 195 employees.
After several acquisitions and expansions, Southwest Airlines now operates 727 planes, has about 54,000 employees and serves more than 100 destinations in the U.S., Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.