Semiprivate constitution service JSX has a brand new fleet of turboprop planes and a hunch that Individuals may wish to fly on them.
So, the place will vacationers see the brand new plane? JSX’s high government is aware of precisely the place he’d prefer to ship them.
The service has its eyes on flights between San Jose Mineta Worldwide Airport (SJC) in Northern California and Santa Monica Airport (SMO) in Southern California. This route would join Silicon Valley with “Silicon Seaside” (as Santa Monica is understood), JSX CEO Alex Wilcox advised TPG in an interview this week.
The problem is securing house at SJC for JSX, which operates from non-public terminals. This might probably push the airline’s deliberate route from SJC to a different Bay Space airport: Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport (OAK), the place JSX already flies, Wilcox mentioned.
For now, JSX’s sole ATR 42-600 is flying each day between SMO and Las Vegas’ Harry Reid Worldwide Airport (LAS). Flights from SMO to Scottsdale Airport (SCF) in Arizona start Jan. 22 and, on Feb. 2, the airline will add two extra LAS flights for a complete of three each day. The LAS growth will coincide with the arrival of JSX’s second ATR later in January.
The planes are outfitted with 30 seats in a 2-1 premium structure just like that on its Embraer ERJ-135 regional jets. There are USB-A and USB-C charging retailers at each seat, and, beginning round February, the service can have high-speed Starlink inflight Wi-Fi connectivity.
Turboprops are again: Are these new JSX planes higher than a jet?
Flyers can earn factors on JSX flights by means of Membership JSX, the airline’s personal loyalty program, or both United MileagePlus or JetBlue TrueBlue. Nevertheless, MileagePlus and TrueBlue members can’t redeem factors for the brand new ATR flights.
JSX plans so as to add two extra ATRs by this summer time, bringing the fleet to 4, Wilcox mentioned. The extra planes would enable the launch of the SMO-SJC or SMO-OAK route, in addition to nonstop flights to Telluride Regional Airport (TEX) in Colorado from SMO and Dallas Love Subject (DAL).
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“Markets between 300 and 500 nautical miles [or roughly 345 to 575 miles] … that is the place we’re higher,” Nathalie Tarnaud Laude, CEO of ATR, mentioned in an interview Monday.
JSX’s deliberate ATR routes are all examples of what it will probably do with the turboprop: fly quick routes to airports that it can’t serve with a jet. Whereas jets will not be completely banned at SMO, the runway is simply too quick for the Embraer ERJ-145. The identical is true at TEX.
“The board mentioned to me: ‘If you are going to get this airplane, be sure you solely take it to locations the place the jet cannot go,'” Wilcox mentioned when requested why JSX is including the brand new ATRs although it has dozens of idle used ERJs parked within the desert.
JSX additionally plans so as to add six ERJ-145s with its commonplace premium 30-seat structure to its fleet this yr, he added.
Whereas the ATRs are opening new routes for JSX, some query whether or not the airline’s premium vacationers will fly them as willingly as they fly its ERJs. Turboprops have all however disappeared from U.S. skies because the rise of the regional jet within the 2000s.
“The rationale we’re working the experiment is to run the experiment,” Wilcox mentioned. “We do not know what we do not know but. All early indications are very constructive.”
The online promoter rating, a measure of buyer satisfaction, will information the airline’s resolution on whether or not to fly the ATRs long run — they’re at present leased to the service.
And for the primary few weeks of service — the planes have flown the SMO-LAS route as soon as each day since Dec. 19 — Wilcox mentioned the web promoter rating was higher than the corporate common, maybe an early signal that prospects just like the expertise.
If the experiment proves profitable, JSX has a cope with ATR to purchase as much as 25 extra planes. Wilcox hopes to decide by the fourth quarter of this yr.
And if vacationers balk at flying on the turboprops, JSX can return them to their proprietor with the satisfaction of realizing it tried.
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