As questions swirl about the way forward for Spirit Airways, JetBlue has been making a giant push within the finances airline’s yard. And it could simply be getting began.
Final week, JetBlue introduced a serious growth at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Worldwide Airport (FLL), ramping up service to Latin America and a handful of U.S. cities — together with a slew of routes Spirit serves.
Anticipate to see extra the place that got here from. “The guess we have made in [Fort] Lauderdale is a fairly large guess,” JetBlue president Marty St. George stated, talking final week at an business convention. “And we’ve extra stuff to come back.”
To this point this 12 months, JetBlue has added 17 new routes out of FLL, and bolstered its flying to a dozen different cities. That features a considerably bigger presence within the Caribbean, Central America and South America.
All it’s a must to do is take a look at a map to see the expansion — try what JetBlue’s worldwide route map out of FLL appeared like in January 2025, as proven by Cirium.
Here is what it will seem like come January 2026 — St. Maarten, Honduras, Colombia, Aruba, Costa Rica, you title it.
That southward growth is not over.
“There are lots of locations south of Fort Lauderdale that we might prefer to fly,” St. George stated, addressing the Morgan Stanley Laguna Convention in California on Sept. 11.
All advised, the airline expects to develop its departures out of Fort Lauderdale this winter by 38%, per Cirium knowledge.
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And the service sees the airport, going ahead, because the southeast counterpart to its massive hubs in New York and Boston — a 3rd “tentpole,” as St. George put it, to enhance John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK) and Boston Logan Worldwide Airport (BOS).
Alternatives in Fort Lauderdale
That JetBlue is again to main progress someplace outdoors the Northeast is notable, after 2024 noticed the service pull again considerably in different components of the nation as a part of a sequence of maneuvers meant to return the corporate to profitability.
The timing of the service’s Fort Lauderdale strikes, although, is not any coincidence. JetBlue has lengthy needed extra gates at FLL.
The airport’s prime service — Spirit Airways — is now embroiled in chapter 11 chapter for the second time in lower than a 12 months (and fewer than two years after its deliberate merger with JetBlue got here to a halt). Spirit has raised issues about its long-term monetary viability, and not too long ago started slashing flights from its community — opening up gate area in Fort Lauderdale within the course of.
“As our largest competitor there has began to [cut back] and fortuitously open up some gate capability for us,” St. George stated, “we’re profiting from it.”
So produce other rivals. United Airways not too long ago introduced a large Florida growth, and Spirit’s low-cost competitor Frontier Airways will develop its wintertime departures out of FLL by 40%, Cirium knowledge reveals.
Earlier this month, Spirit advised TPG the community strikes by different airways amounted to “wishful considering” by rivals hoping to place the Dania Seashore-based service out of enterprise.
Whatever the motives, JetBlue and others sense a giant progress alternative — maybe a once-in-a-decade probability — to make a giant push in Fort Lauderdale, now maybe one of many airline business’s largest flashpoints within the 12 months forward.
“We’re excited to welcome the brand new routes and/or elevated flight frequency that present carriers have introduced not too long ago,” the Broward County Aviation Division, which oversees FLL, advised TPG in a press release, noting the rise in “handy and cost-effective methods to go to and luxuriate in these locations” for enterprise and leisure vacationers alike.
FAQ: Spirit Airways’ chapter and the way it would possibly have an effect on your journey
JetBlue’s future plans in Europe
On prime of including new short-haul worldwide routes to Latin America, JetBlue can be dropping hints about its future long-haul worldwide flights to Europe.
It was solely 4 years in the past the service launched its first transatlantic flights to London. Then got here Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin, Edinburgh and Madrid. However whereas JetBlue is not ruling out one other European vacation spot, it’s anticipating its quick progress trajectory throughout the pond to stage off.
The service is barely slated to obtain two extra planes able to reaching Europe between now and 2031: “We’re nearly reaching the primary plateau of transatlantic progress,” St. George stated.
Nonetheless, the service stays bullish on its still-burgeoning Europe service.
That is very true after the service started pulling again (some) on its transatlantic flights in the course of the wintertime, as an alternative deploying these planes — outfitted with its spiffiest Mint cabin — to in style warm-weather and snowboarding locations.
“That steadiness of fine solar markets within the winter, after which the European markets in the summertime and fall, has made for a really, excellent revenue portfolio for us,” St. George stated.
Doubling down on premium Europe service
JetBlue’s long-haul Europe service will get a premium infusion on the bottom later this 12 months when the service unveils its first airport lounge at JFK, providing entry to its Mint passengers taking these flights.
A second outpost will open subsequent 12 months at BOS.
Whereas the lounges will cater to JetBlue’s high-paying vacationers flying to Europe, there shall be different methods for patrons to realize entry. The airline will supply membership entry to top-tier Mosaic 4 elite standing members, and TrueBlue loyalists who carry the service’s new premium bank card.
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