Quote: "Neither Southwest nor JetBlue are full network carriers. They cherrypick flying the most profitable routes, and generally avoid flying to small cities or more congested airports. You can't fly Southwest from New York City (Islip is too far out for most of us) or Fargo. And you can't fly JetBlue from JFK to the more congested San Francisco or LAX."
No, but you can fly JetBlue from JFK to Oakland or San Jose, not really a big diff there. Starting in June you can fly JetBlue from Newark to the same places. Yes, JetBlue cherry picks, but it does it in a very clever way.
Jet Blue is in trouble these days, losing money and too many planes coming in that they have nowhere to put.
Expect them to defer deliveries soon. The legacy carriers have cut back their expenses like crazy, and most of them are on track to do quite well this year, at the expense of Jet Blue and Southwest.
"Cherry picking" profitable routes would seem to be the only selection process that makes any sense for an airline. What business does any airline have in flying unprofitable routess, since profits for the owners are the only justifications for their existence?