Oh, really?

From the Cincinnati Post, October 24:
JetBlue welcome, CVG says
If JetBlue Airways Corp. is looking for another Midwest market to serve after the low-cost carrier pulls out of Columbus, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport stands ready.
"There's no doubt that we're going to be talking to them," airport spokesman Ted Bushelman said Tuesday, the day JetBlue announced it would discontinue its Columbus service. "That's just the name of the game."
But don't plan on flying JetBlue out of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky just yet.
The problem in Columbus - too few passengers bound for destinations that JetBlue serves - and stiff competition for passengers on flights to the airline's New York base by Delta Air Lines and its regional partner Comair, the Cincinnati airport's dominant carriers, make expansion here unlikely, say experts.
Jet Blue's hub is at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, where Delta is expanding domestic and international service and has spent $50 million refurbishing its terminals. Delta has 30 percent of the flights at JFK; Jet Blue has 29 percent.
Jet Blue has as its first expansion priority to better "connect the dots" with more service between markets where it already has a sizeable customer base rather than beginning service in new markets, spokesman Bryan Baldwin said from JetBlue headquarters in New York.
"We really are taking a hard look at the current network that we have, assuring that the routes that we have really fit in toward our goal to sustain profitability as a company," Baldwin said.
The decision to end service in January to Columbus and also to Nashville, Tenn., was part of that strategy, he said.
Lagging business in both of those markets prompted the airline's decision to pull out, said Dave Barger, JetBlue's chief executive officer, and "to redeploy our assets."
The dominance of Delta, which with Comair provides about 80 percent of the flights at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, is also a consideration in any decision by JetBlue or any other low-cost carrier to try to compete at the airport here, said Baldwin.
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky has enjoyed little success in attracting low-cost carriers to the airport, which earlier this year was deemed to have the highest average fares among the nation's 100 top airports.
The only low-cost carrier here is USA 3000, which began operations at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky in 2002 with twice weekly flights to Cancun, Mexico. It has since expanded with flights to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and Fort Myers, Fla.
Other low-cost carriers that have tried to gain a foothold at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky have eventually left because they couldn't compete with Delta. That carrier typically lowered its fares on competing routes, and customers returned to Delta so they could earn frequent flier miles.
AirTran tried to operate at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky for three years before pulling out in 1998, the same year Air Canada left after less than a year. Vanguard Airlines twice failed at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, the last time in 2000.
Still, Bushelman said airport officials will contact JetBlue in hopes the low-cost carrier might expand at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky.
"We'll always act on it, but apparently JetBlue has found out that the Midwest is not a good place for them to be," Bushelman said.


Jet Blue! We want you!