Gary Samela,…most of the stuff posted here is not just
the author pulling it out of his ass but is based on fact. Yes…Southwest
did in fact visit ORH in person. The execs came to visit to scope the
place out as the airline was very seriously considering ORH as their
next expansion. This was pre-pandemic. Service was planned to start in
the summer ‘20 span of time but once early spring of 2020 hit, they
quickly pulled out of the deal as it had yet to be made public and
therefore no harm would be done. As for JetBlue’s 2x daily flights.
Yes…everyone predicts them to do quite well once the 2nd daily flight
comes online in a week. I personally have access to the daily flight
information with pax count. The single flight is currently doing quite
well. They are averaging a 50% load factor over the last month which
considering we are still in a semi-pandemic with people still afraid to
fly is quite well. As for Breeze, once again, I can say firsthand fhe
airline was originally considering ORH as one of their launch
destinations. This was back when they where still getting there feet
underneath them & had yet to be named Breeze. At the time it was
‘Moxy’ who we knew was in talks with the airport.
As for American they
already have changes planned to there service. They are starting off
with the PHL flight for Nov/Dec using a ERJ145XR. Then come January, a
switch is planned from Piedmont to Republic as the service provider.
This will see an aircraft switch from a ERJ145XR to an ERJ175LR. Slight
upgrade operations wise, but huge upgrade for pax comfort. A change in
destination is also being looked at as they are currently looking into
switching from PHL to JFK at the same time, tho this has yet to be 100%
finalized.
This switch would see JB give up one of their JFK flights to
American as they have a codeshare agreement. This would allow JB to use
their 3rd flight to add MCO back to the schedule. As of current JB is
reluctant to add MCO as an 4th flight instead of replacing one of the
original 3. This is because once they hit 4 per day they must switch
from using contracted (Ross Aviation in this case) ticket agents to JB
personal. Unsure if this is a contractual obligation or what, that
knowledgeable is above me. B it what is stated above I know firsthand.
So no, the Author is not ‘pulling things out of his ass.
Comments
Still believe that JetBlue, American or Delta should capitalize a little more on Non-Stop flights to Florida out of ORH. Its great to have all the connections out of NY, but more Non-Stop options to Florida would compliment ORH greatly.