JetBlue Airways Corp. said it won't add flights at Washington Dulles International Airport until after Independence Air, a low-cost carrier, begins service next month to compete with former partner United Airlines.
Independence Air, owned by Atlantic Coast Airlines Holdings Inc., will offer more than 300 daily flights at Dulles starting June 16. Atlantic Coast had provided commuter service for United until a disagreement ended their contract in April. JetBlue has nine daily round-trips from Dulles to California and Florida.
"We're not planning any new service at Dulles until that whole situation shakes out," chief financial officer John Owen said at a Bear Stearns Cos. transportation conference in New York. "We're simply going to sit tight with what we have at Dulles and wait out the storm there."
JetBlue, which added a flight from Dulles to Sacramento, Calif., last week, expects Independence and United to increase capacity at the airport in the Washington suburbs. Fares generally decline when flights to the same destination are added in a market.
"It's going to be a bloodbath," Owen said of Dulles. "There is going to be, in our view, a hell of a war there."
United and Atlantic Coast agreed to end their contract after failing to negotiate a new agreement to lower United's rate while it is in bankruptcy protection.
Owen didn't say when JetBlue would consider adding flights at Dulles.
Last year, JetBlue dropped twice-daily flights between Atlanta and two California cities after Delta Air Lines Inc. and discounter AirTran Holdings Inc. boosted capacity on the routes.