For JetBlue’s PR version of the story, the upcoming winter is going to be a boon for New England. The carrier will add new service from Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT) to its route map, part of a 20% growth planned for New England this winter. Service will also be added as Presque Isle (subsidized by the Essential Air Service program) and Islip Airport on Long Island, both previously announced.
Not included in the press release – but shared with crew members in a memo seen by PaxEx.Aero – is news of seven stations closing for the airline. Several other routes will see cuts through the winter. In total, 24 routes are being terminated or suspended for the season, while a dozen – including the prior announcements – are being added.
Our commitment to Boston and our loyal customers across New England is unwavering as we continue to innovate and enhance our product. With each new development, each new route, we aim to deliver even greater comfort and convenience, ensuring that our customers’ choice is easy, and they always receive the best that JetBlue has to offer.
– Marty St. George, president of JetBlue
Major JetBlue cuts for the winter
When the IATA season shifts at the end of October JetBlue will terminate 11 routes:
- Boston to Charlotte, Minneapolis, and San Antonio
- JFK to Burbank and San Antonio
- Los Angeles to Salt Lake City and Cabo
- Raleigh-Durham to Orlando and Cancun
- Fort Lauderdale to Tallahassee (which just started in January)
- Newark to Montego Bay
The carrier will also suspend six routes seasonally at that time:
- Boston to Amsterdam (which it fought so hard for), Milwaukee, and Salt Lake City
- Los Angeles to Buffalo
- JFK to Austin and Seattle
The seasonal suspensions are mostly expected to resume in April 2025, though Amsterdam is poised to return at the end of March with the IATA seasonal change.
Los Angeles to Nassau will terminate on 7 September. Newark to Santo Domingo, DR as well as Fort Lauderdale to San Diego and Guayaquil will terminate on 6 January 2025.
Service to Palm Springs and Pointe-à-Pitre, previously announced as seasonal suspensions will not resume this winter.
With these moves JetBlue will no longer offer service at Burbank, Charlotte, Minneapolis, Palm Springs, Pointe-à-Pitre, San Antonio nor Tallahassee. Those seven stations are closing for the airline.
The additions
Manchester will see daily flights added to Orlando on a year-round basis, starting at the end of January. Fort Lauderdale (4x weekly) and For Myers (3x) will also see service for the winter season. The aircraft will start and end the day in Orlando, with a trip to either Fort Lauderdale or Fort Myers. The seasonal routes terminate at the end of April, but the schedule from Orlando still has the large midday gap in it. Either another market will be added or those flight times will need to change.
Additional flights at Providence – seasonal to Fort Myers and Tampa, plus year-round to San Juan – and a seasonal flight from Orlando to Portland, Maine round out the increases in the region.
Competing with itself
Some of the markets being dropped make plenty of sense. Fort Lauderdale to Tallahassee was added as part of a push to garner support from Governor DeSantis for the proposed Spirit merger. And Pointe-à-Pitre has rarely proven a profitable route from US markets (the Air France milk run not withstanding). Indeed, when Norwegian added the route in 2015 JetBlue was happy to let that airline try the market, noting that it did not see a path to profitability in the French Caribbean.
Other destinations have more of a business focus, a market JetBlue has struggled to break into, even in Boston. And while this past week has been rough for Delta Air Lines, it tends to generally do better with business travelers than JetBlue.
Perhaps most interesting, however, is seeing JetBlue picking up additional routes adjacent to its Boston and JFK hubs. The Islip service, for example, will take away some demand from JFK or LaGuardia. Similarly, Manchester and Providence share some overlapping catchment with Boston. It seems, however, that JetBlue now is willing to compete with itself in some of those markets to avoid shedding passengers to competitors.
Service at Providence is up 21% by ASMs from November 2019 to 2024, for example. That’s all because of Breeze Airways‘ arrival in the market. Frontier bailed while American Airlines, Delta, and United Airlines scaled back. JetBlue doubled its size in PVD in that span, but Breeze is catching up, and will operate more flights in the month, though fewer ASMs.
Manchester is a different story, with ASMs down 31% from the pre-COVID era. But with Sun Country, Breeze, and Avelo growing there, JetBlue sees pressure to remain relevant in the point-to-point markets.
The route network changes have the fingerprints of company president Marty St. George all over them. Since he returned to the carrier back in February there have been some minor adjustments around the edges. This week’s news seems to be the most significant set of changes to date.
These moves deviates slightly from the company’s promised return to its core focus city strategy, especially where the airline is competing with itself. Still, it is hard to think that not changing was the better given the company’s recent financial performance.
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No please don’t take my direct flight to San Antonio. It’s always full ! Why???
Alas, as airlines are proving once again recently, filling up planes does not always mean a route makes money.
Though I am a bit more surprised at SAT being cut than some of the others. I’d think as the only player in the market JetBlue would’ve been able to drive better revenue there.