Days after losing the chance to purchase Virgin America Inc., JetBlue Airways Corp. is expected to announce plans to expand its luxury version of first class, dubbed Mint, on new transcontinental routes starting next year.

Alaska Air Group Inc. prevailed in the Virgin America auction, agreeing to pay $2.6 billion for the small San Francisco-based airline that developed a niche flying coast-to-coast. But neither Alaska nor Virgin have lie-flat beds in their first-class cabins, something most of the larger, full-service airlines offer only on the two busiest routes transcontinental routes.

JetBlue is expected to announce it will bring Mint flights from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as well as connecting Las Vegas and New York, San Diego with New York and Boston, and Seattle with New York and Boston.

Earlier this month, JetBlue said it plans to bring Mint to the Boston-Los Angeles route in October as well as beginning seasonal service between New York and San Lucia, New York and St. Maarten and Boston and Aruba this winter. The airline currently operates on all of these routes with all-economy-class planes.

JetBlue, the nation's No. 5 airline by traffic, launched Mint flights in mid-2014 to attract corporate fliers and affluent leisure travelers with high-end service and prices that are lower than those charged by carriers such as American Airlines Group Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc. and United Continental Holdings Inc. The larger carriers only offer luxury flights between the New York area and San Francisco and Los Angeles. On other flights, their first-class cabins are more akin to what Virgin and Alaska offer.

For a New York-San Francisco Mint seat departing April 29 and returning May 3, the fare is $1,706 round trip. American wants $2,529 and Delta $3,278 for similar high-end service. Mint seats start at $599 one-way, but a quick check revealed many flights already were sold out weeks in advance.

JetBlue, founded in 2000 as a low-fare airline, until two years ago offered only coach cabins, albeit ones that offered free TV at every seat back. But Mint has performed so well that JetBlue quickly expanded it to Boston, a city where it is the dominant airline, and began offering seasonal flights to Caribbean vacation destinations from New York and Boston.

The company uses Airbus A321s on Mint flights, putting 16 first-class seats in the front cabin and 143 seats in back in coach cabins that have been upgraded. Twelve of the Mint seats are in the traditional two-by-two layout, but the other four are alone, shielded by sliding privacy doors. Mint customers receive complimentary meals, signature cocktails, amenity kits and larger flat screens with free entertainment options.

The company has 13 planes outfitted for Mint now and four more coming this year. It expects to take delivery of nine more Mint airplanes in 2017 and more the year after. Marty St. George, JetBlue's executive vice president of commercial and planning, said this expansion was in the works well before Alaska and Virgin announced their plans to merge. He said JetBlue is on the lookout for further profitable, underserved routes that could benefit from Mint, which he called "a category changer" compared with traditional first-class seats offered by rival airlines.

Last week, when Alaska confirmed that it plans to acquire Virgin, JetBlue issued a statement saying it performed "a disciplined evaluation" of Virgin's worth. After the price was bid up, it was "clear our plan for organic growth" offered a better path to create value, JetBlue said. JetBlue said its strategy is to bring more competition to the West Coast, expand Mint on coast-to-coast flights, add aircraft to its fleet and invest in the customer experience.

Write to Susan Carey at susan.carey@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 12, 2016 08:05 ET (12:05 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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