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Better Flight Tracking and a New Caribbean Route In the Works at JetBlue

February 8, 2011 at 11:22 AM | by | Comments (0)

For quite some time there’s been talk about the Federal Aviation Administration—or since we know them so wel,l the FAA—starting up some kind of newfangled fancy pants way to track planes in and around the country. Well it seems that they’re slowly moving forward with some of these satellite based tracking plans, and JetBlue is going to be one of the first airlines to help them out.

As many as 35 of their Airbus A320 aircraft will be getting the new technology at some point in 2012, and this will allow air traffic controllers to pretty much see where the planes are all the time and in real time.

Obviously this is a big deal when it comes to things like safety, but it’s also a potential huge money saver for the airline. They would now be able to fly more precise routes, which would save some cash on all those pricey airplane fill-ups at the pump. Maybe they’ll even pass along some of the savings to us—we can hope, right?

The JetBlue announcement is just a small step in the larger plan to equip all the country’s planes with the new GPS-ish technology, as the total project is going to cost like $40 billion between the airlines and FAA over the next ten years or so. The FAA is paying in part for JetBlue’s equipment since it's a test run, but JetBlue is footing the bill when it comes to some of the training and upkeep requirements.

The most exciting news out of all this air traffic technology stuff is the reward that JetBlue is going to earn for being so helpful. They’re getting a new route to somewhere warm and tropical in the Caribbean. We don’t know where just yet (maybe they'll announce it later today), but streamlining their traffic up and down the East Coast should allow for one more beach destination along with shorter routes from New York, Boston, and Washington to the sun and sand. Stay tuned!

Related Stories:
· JetBlue Part of New Air Traffic Control Program [AP, via Google]
· A Hotel for JFK's Iconic TWA Terminal Would Be Great, but Likely Won't Happen [Jaunted
· JetBlue coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Jaunted]

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