4 months ago, JetBlue announced the end of service to Baltimore, Kansas City, 5 routes from Fort Lauderdale, 8 routes from Los Angeles, and several other cuts.
2 months ago, they announced the end of service for Puerto Vallarta, 5 routes from LGA, routes like LA to Newark and Orlando, and suspended winter operations for London/LGW and reduced winter flights to Paris.
That came after a costly failed merger effort with Spirit, the end of the Northeast Alliance with American, and corporate activist/raider Carl Icahn gaining board seats at JetBlue.
JetBlue is back with new cuts as it tries to shrink its way to profitability.
The airline expects to shrink so much that it is offering its pilots 50 hours of pay to stay home. Pilots normally fly and are paid for 70-85 hours per month.
It will end service to:
- Burbank
- Charlotte
- Minneapolis-S. Paul
- Palm Springs
- Pointe-a-Pitre
- San Antonio
- Tallahassee
Routes like JFK-Burbank, JFK-San Antonio, and JFK-Palm Springs have long been popular, but apparently haven’t been profitable.
Other routes that are ending include Fort Lauderdale-San Diego, Newark-Montego Bay, Newark-Santo Domingo, Los Angeles-Nassau, Los Angeles-Los Cabos, Los Angeles-Salt Lake City, Miami-Hartford, and more.
Routes that will be suspended for the winter season include JFK-Austin, JFK-Seattle, Boston-Amsterdam, Boston-Milwaukee, Boston-Salt Lake City, and Buffalo-Los Angeles flights.
JetBlue will also add some flights, including seasonal Buffalo-West Palm Beach, Manchester/MHT-Fort Lauderdale, Manchester/MHT-Fort Myers, Providence-Fort Myers, Providence-Tampa, and Portland/PWM-Orlando. New year-round routes include Boston-Presque Isle/PQI, Providence-San Juan, and Manchester/MHT-Orlando.
What do you think of these route cuts? Will JetBlue be able to shrink to profitability?
HT: TPG
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10 Comments On "JetBlue Abandons Burbank, Charlotte, Minneapolis, San Antonio, Palm Springs, Tallahassee, And More In 3rd Major Round Of Cuts This Year"
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BUR – JFK on B6 was a great option for the valley folks. Real loss.
I’ve been on a couple of flights from BUR where they originally said they wouldn’t be able to make it across the country and would have to stop for fuel in LV or SLC (“don’t worry folks it’s not gonna take long”). One time they bumped people off and the other they said the wind picked up so they could make it. It’s due to short runway/ weight restrictions at BUR. After that I said I’m not risking it anymore.
This feels brutal. Hoping DL or AA sees the opportunity here and considers bringing this back.
Don’t waste money on extremely unlikely to complete and extremely expensive mergers and then you won’t have to cut and cut until there’s nothing left. This is a vicious cycle.
Burning my jet blue miles from back when i was still mosaic and there are still routes to use them. Things went downhill with the American alliance and that was beginning of end on an airline i really used to enjoy!
The cut to CLT and MSP are the ones that hit me. Being able to fly JetBlue out of or into those airports to get to or from JFK had helped me to save a good deal of money.
They have the dumbest route network known to mankind.
2 hubs in the northeast a few hundred miles from each other that largely serve the same routes. 2 hubs in Florida a few hundred miles from each other that largely serve the same routes.
Pick a hub in the Northeast. Pick a hub in Florida. Bonus points if you can find a logical hub somewhere in the middle of the country. And implement a real hub and spoke business model.
Right now they have a hub and spoke business model….. that primarily caters to point to point traffic.
What will happen to the JFK slots?
Bummer. Do you know of any good uses for JetBlue points before what might be inevitable happens?
Been sitting a bunch of JetBlue miles for years as I have have no way to use them