JetBlue: We asked Air Azul to change its name
May 6th, 2009 at 11:12am Thomas V. Bona
Wish I had gotten this Monday, when I wrote about Air Azul changing its name to JetAmerica, but it came in late yesterday.
JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin said, “At JetBlue, we vigorously protect our brand. We are very concerned about the confusion the Air Azul name might create and have asked Air Azul to change their name.”
Azul means “Blue” in Spanish. If that wasn’t a poke enough, its slogan was “Come fly the new blue.” Bet the “old” blue didn’t take kindly to that, either.
Oddly enough, there’s also Azul Airlines in Brazil, started by - wait for it - former JetBlue head David Neeleman.
The Airline Formerly Known As Air Azul won’t directly comment about JetBlue, just saying, “The more we don’t use that word, the better everybody is.”
(Another funny note - there’s a Jet America Ltd. out there that apparently flies small jets on a contract basis. I guess the lack of a space in JetAmerica makes all the difference).
A note of clarification -”Sun America” is the holding company for Air Azul, now JetAmerica. It never was an interim name. That’s been the one constant the past few months.
Of course, it wasn’t just the name thing that forced the new airline to delay startup.It’s changed which airline it’s leasing planes from (with no word why), it’s changed CEOs (with the new guy still a secret) and it seems to have a different marketing bent. I did erronously report that it’ll use bigger planes - the planes will be the same size, but configured for more seating (so you’ll pay less, but have less legroom).
Not that you all care about little old me, but I was one of those who booked a flight in June on Air Azul and had to make other plans. Thankfully, my A+ Rewards credits on AirTran meant I could fly MKE-LGA for less, including parking and gas.
More on JetAmerica as we hear it. This certainly is a turbulent takeoff.
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7 Comments Add your own
1. popup | May 7th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Is RFD off Jet America’s list? There web site jsut removed RFD.
http://silverrayn.com/flysunamerica/
2. Thomas V. Bona | May 7th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
I wouldn’t go to that conclusion just yet. The site is not public til Monday (how did you get it? Google?). And if you click through to the reservations section, you can book flights from RFD. They could just be tinkering with the site…
3. popup | May 8th, 2009 at 11:05 am
yes I googled it and RFD and Balimore was there until yesterday and now they have added MSP. Also the old route map was taken off. I think they are swaping MSP for RFD.
4. Thomas V. Bona | May 8th, 2009 at 11:16 am
MSP was always part of the plan, though, I believe.
I’m checking into it, but I wouldn’t be worried until they actually go live…
Thanks for the heads up.
5. popup | May 9th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Tom, looks like people really do read your blog because the home page is now hidden. Oh well I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.
6. popup | May 18th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Tom.. now Jet America’s flight schedule is posted with no RFD and the reservations system is down most likely to remove Baltimore and RFD.
http://www.silverrayn.com/flysunamerica/travel-tools/jet-america-flight-schedule/
Does RFD hav any comment?
7. Thomas V. Bona | May 18th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
No comment from RFD (and it’s more of a “we can’t comment, we have nothing we can say” situation, not a “we’re trying to avoid you.”)
Remember, that site is still not a public one … it’s under their developer’s domain. Is it a bad sign? Sure. But until a public site is out or someone from the airline or airport says something, we can only speculate.
Thanks for the heads up.
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