JetBlue to minimize some routes as it pushes for profitability

JetBlue to minimize some routes as it pushes for profitability


The JetBlue drop-off location at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Oct. 31, 2023.

Leslie Josephs/CNBC

JetBlue Airways instructed staff members this 7 days that it will cut some routes and support as it struggles to return to profitability and grapples with the fallout of its blocked program to buy Spirit Airways.

JetBlue explained it will prevent flying from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport to Portland, Oregon, and to San Jose, California, and from Westchester, New York, and Martha’s Winery, in accordance to an inside memo, which was reviewed by CNBC. The airline will also suspend service from New York to Ponce, Puerto Rico, and to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in October.

“We are unable to fly everywhere you go we might like, so we need to have to be very selective about exactly where we position our plane in get to turn a revenue, support our over-all network method, and present a reliable operation,” wrote Dave Jehn, vice president of community setting up and airline partnerships, in a observe to personnel.

The airline is alternatively concentrating on leisure routes, incorporating service through the Caribbean and to Paris, the memo mentioned.

JetBlue is also exiting Baltimore/Washington Global Thurgood Marshall Airport, Jehn said. He extra that the carrier will “deliver a quantity of choices transferring forward” to employees there. The airline stated it would however serve the space with service from Washington D.C.

Jehn claimed the adjustments were being in the performs for nearly a thirty day period, ahead of the court determination that blocked JetBlue’s prepared $3.8 billion acquisition of Spirit on antitrust grounds. Judge William Young’s impression only blocks the merger that the providers agreed to in July 2022, not a different proposed blend, ought to the airlines just take that route.

JetBlue explained in a assertion that the modifications had been in “no way” connected to the judge’s choice.

We continually regulate our community to assist our system and these the latest alterations are a needed speedy stage to aid return our business enterprise to profitability,” JetBlue reported. “All the routes incorporated have lately underperformed our anticipations and these adjustments appear as put up-COVID journey styles continue to evolve.”

JetBlue also reported it is making an attempt to improve its dependability.

“By getting rid of some of our a lot less in-desire flights, we will give our procedure far more breathing space as we plan for air site visitors manage difficulties in the northeast,” the firm reported. 

JetBlue rated 9th in on-time arrivals among the U.S. airlines in the 1st 10 months of 2023, according to the Transportation Section.

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