Is JetBlue the next Southwest?

The 5-year-old New York-based airline has been the talk of the industry of late, landing atop customer-satisfaction surveys, including one released last week, and creating buzz enough to influence an industry full of rivals many times its size.

"JetBlue does have a larger-than-life image," said Robert Mann, president of New York airline consulting firm R.W. Mann & Company. "There are not too many markets where it even appears. ... But we're already seeing its influence. It has great PR, and people talk about JetBlue."

Unlike Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, which set a standard for low fares, JetBlue Airways is setting a standard for frills, he said. JetBlue launched service with all new airplanes that were equipped with television sets at every seat, all of which are leather.

JetBlue ranked No. 1 in customer satisfaction by a sizable margin in a survey released last week by marketing research firm J.D. Power and Associates of 2,600 passengers who traveled between May and October. Southwest was ranked second, followed by Delta Airlines. Customers praised the airline for such things as ease of making a reservation, courtesy and presentation.

Industry observers say airlines are no longer able to differentiate themselves on price alone, so they try to offer extra perks to give customers more for their money. Mann said Southwest is known as a maverick in the industry, more used to being copied than copying others, but it, too, has made some moves that reflect ever-changing and increasing competition in the industry. Recently, it began offering online check-in the day of travel and free and discounted movies for downloading on passengers' computers aboard flights.

Eventually, he said, Southwest will have to examine its own in-flight entertainment and consider assigning seats in advance of flights. It remains the only major carrier not to assign seats. Passengers line up and board according to when they arrive at the airport, although Southwest last year began allowing ticket-holders to reserve seats online the same day as their flight. The arrangement helps keep the airline flying on time and efficiently, Southwest has said.

While acknowledging that Southwest and JetBlue offer good customer service, some analysts say both look good in polls, in part, because other airlines look bad. Major carriers, which have lost billions of dollars since the 2001 terrorist attacks, have cut amenities such as meals, pillows and customer service.

Terry Tripler, a Minneapolis-based airline industry expert, added that JetBlue remains much smaller than Southwest. It carried 11.7 million passengers last year (and its only service from Seattle is to New York City), compared with 81 million for Southwest.

"Southwest is huge and has more chances to have a problem," said Trippler. "If the weather is bad, maybe four planes full of JetBlue people are upset, while 100 planes full of Southwest or American Airlines are upset."