Allison Miguel, Savannah station manager for JetBlue Airways, told the January meeting of the Tourism Leadership Council exactly what they were hoping to hear.
“We’re here to stay,” she said Thursday at the Embassy Suites on Oglethorpe Avenue.
“We love it here in Savannah, and we aren’t going anywhere.”
That said, Miguel told the group she didn’t expect any immediate changes in service from Savannah.
“We currently have three flights a day, two from New York’s JFK and one from Boston,” she said. “We’re not anticipating making any changes in the near future.
“As an airline, we like to grow responsibly.”
She said that JetBlue is happy with its Savannah market results.
“We’re doing well against the competition. Both markets performed well out of the gate, and we continue to stimulate demand,” she said. “We’re extremely pleased with our load factors, which have been in the mid-80s and continue to show strength.” A load factor is the percentage of available seats that are filled.
Although she reiterated that there were no plans for additional flights or routes on the immediate horizon, Miguel said Savannah’s performance bodes well for its future with JetBlue.
“Based on the performance and the reception we’ve had here, Savannah is definitely being looked at as one of the airports that is going to be growing in the future in terms of adding additional routes,” she said.
JetBlue made an auspicious entrance in the Savannah market less than a year ago.
“It was Feb. 13, truly a day to remember,” Miguel said, laughing.
As Savannah prepared to welcome its first JetBlue flight, a massive snowstorm was blanketing New York City, grounding more than 350 flights.
“But not Flight 841,” she said.
Taking off in heavy, swirling snow, the 100-seat Embraer E190 might have been the last plane to depart from JFK that morning.
“This was an important flight. We may have pulled a few strings,” Miguel said, smiling.
Since that day, JetBlue has served more than 100,000 passengers in Savannah, she said.
“And I think it’s safe to say that’s just the beginning.”
Today, JetBlue is the largest carrier at JFK International in New York, as well as in Boston, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Long Beach, Calif., and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
JetBlue carries more than 29 million passengers a year to 87 destinations in America, the Caribbean and Latin America.