Does JetBlue’s T5 really work?

Whilst a terminal is about far more than making money, revenue is an important part of the equation – particularly retail revenue.

So what does the performance of T5 look like compared to JetBlue‘s old terminal and other US airports?

The above chart from a presentation by Jim Smith of JetBlue indicates T5 Sales per enplaned passenger as some 44% higher than in the prior JetBlue terminal, which indeed had already been sales optimised in its own right and nearly double the likes of LAX T1.

Aside from all the customer experience elements of the new terminal which now doubt have contributed toward this uplift, and the retail mix, the keys of success in achieving this phenomenal result for a US Airport can be seen in the following chart.

A very important feature of which has been working on pre-planned spend.  Whilst the chart points more to activities aimed directly at increasing pre-planned spend (such as promoting the retail product with etineraries), JetBlue’s strategy also included activities such as:

• A structure programme to invite bloggers, travel industry members and journalists for tours through the terminal during development – which not only built excitement but also achieved a fairly unprecedented level of public awareness of the terminal.  This even included involving these market influencers to trial days where the performance of the terminal was tested
• Live blogging from the terminal opening on a dedicated website which heavily featured the retail offer
• Heavy use of Flickr by JetBlue & JetBlue staff with photos of the retail offering – which not only got viewed but was also a resource for bloggers to promote the terminal & retail offering
• Use of YouTube showing advanced information on the food offering & particularly the departure gate ordering system – which then got cross-posted all over the internet
• Strong use of social media to engage the public both in the terminal and its offering – which also included looping in some of the tenants/concessionaires
• Engaging partners in the development into the promotion and pre-opening hype, whether it was in relation to the food offering, the Welcome Centres, Signage etc – everyone was talked about and was talking about how exciting it was going to be.

Another important component of JetBlue’s T5 revenue strategy has been to not assume that everything will go smoothly or according to plan. From the outset contingency plans were created to deal with, for instance, downturns in traffic – as can be seen from the following slide. All pre-considered, explored and plans in place for quick action if it were needed.