After its deal to acquire Spirit Airlines fell through and with some of the its aircraft grounded because of Pratt & Whitney GTF engine inspections, JetBlue is exiting five cities, ending some routes and making others seasonal, the carrier confirmed in an email to BTN Thursday.
JetBlue is departing Bogotá, Colombia; Quito, Ecuador; Lima, Peru; Kansas City, Mo.; and Newburgh, N.Y., where service has been suspended since 2020 because of the pandemic, according to the carrier.
“JetBlue is constantly evaluating our routes to best serve our customers, return our airline to profitability, and find ways to improve our reliability,” the airline said in a statement. “These moves will allow us to deploy our fleet to increase frequencies on well-performing routes from JetBlue’s focus cities while continuing to increase crucial ground time for our aircraft, reducing the chance of delays for our customers.”
JetBlue did not provide additional information about other service cuts, but CNBC reported that based on a memo it reviewed from JetBlue VP of network planning and airline partnerships Dave Jehn to staff, the carrier would reduce departures from Los Angeles International Airport to 24 from 34. Those cuts will include flights between LAX and each San Francisco; Seattle; Miami; Las Vegas; Reno, Nev.; and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Additional routes to be cut include flights between Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and each Austin, Texas; Atlanta; Nashville; and Salt Lake City, according to CNBC. Flights between New York and Detroit also will be eliminated.
New JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty during a fourth-quarter earnings call on Jan. 30, while she was still president and COO, said that the carrier would be “refocusing on our most proven geographies,” “urgently reoptimizing our network” and “taking care of our core customer” as part of $300 million in revenue initiatives that would focus on leisure, particularly premium leisure.
CNBC reported that JetBlue would focus on “bread and butter” routes along the East Coast, along with transcontinental and Caribbean vacation destinations.
