In August 2021, JetBlue launched its much anticipated transatlantic service, with a New York to London route. In April 2022, the airline announced it would add its first transatlantic routes out of Boston, as the airline will fly to two airports in London. Unfortunately this service has just been delayed by a few weeks due to some late deliveries from Airbus.
In this post:
JetBlue’s Boston to London route launches August 2022
JetBlue will be adding service to both London Heathrow and London Gatwick as of the summer of 2022.
As of August 4, 2022, JetBlue will launch a new daily flight between Boston (BOS) and London Gatwick (LGW). This route was initially supposed to launch July 19, 2022. The flight will operate with the following schedule:
B62104 Boston to London departing 6:37PM arriving 6:35AM (+1 day)
B61926 London to Boston departing 12:15PM arriving 3:02PM
The 3,283-mile flight will be operated by an Airbus A321LR, and is blocked at 6hr58min eastbound and 7hr47min westbound.
Then as of September 20, 2022, JetBlue will launch a new daily flight between Boston (BOS) and London Heathrow (LHR). This route was initially supposed to launch on August 22, 2022. The flight will operate with the following schedule:
B61620 Boston to London departing 6:32PM arriving 6:30AM (+1 day)
B61621 London to Boston departing 8:25AM arriving 11:13AM
The 3,265-mile flight will be operated by an Airbus A321LR, and is blocked at 6hr58min eastbound and 7hr48min westbound.
In the past JetBlue had issues with securing slots for London Heathrow, given how expensive they are to acquire. However, for the time being the airline has been granted temporary slots to operate service to the airport, so we’ll see how this evolves over time.
JetBlue will be facing quite a bit of competition between Boston and London, as it’s also operated by American, British Airways, Delta, United, and Virgin Atlantic.
The reason for JetBlue’s Boston transatlantic flight delays
JetBlue’s revised launch dates are due to Airbus delaying the delivery of two new A321LRs, which the carrier needs to operate these routes. Unfortunately these kinds of delivery delays are quite common, and it’s especially problematic when the airline is relying on a specific plane to launch a route.
JetBlue’s incredible Airbus A321LRs
JetBlue has specially configured Airbus A321LRs that are used for this route, featuring a total of only 138 seats (most A321s have closer to 200 seats, but admittedly aren’t configured in such a premium way).
At the front of the plane is the Mint business class cabin, consisting of 24 seats in a 1-1 configuration, all with privacy doors. The first row has the Mint Studios, which are the most spacious seats that are available for an upcharge.
Catering in business class is great as well — JetBlue is in a league of its own among US carriers when it comes to inflight dining.
Even in economy JetBlue offers a nice experience, as seats have a minimum of 32″ of pitch. On top of that, there’s free high-speed Wi-Fi throughout the plane, an excellent entertainment system, and a unique dining concept.
To give you a sense of what to expect, I reviewed JetBlue Mint roundtrip between New York and London in August 2021 — I flew from New York to London in the Mint Suite, and from London to New York in the Mint Studio.
If you want to redeem miles for JetBlue Mint across the Atlantic, your best bet is to book through Emirates Skywards, as you’ll pay 64,000 Skywards miles for a one-way ticket. Skywards partners with virtually all transferable points programs, including Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou.
Bottom line
JetBlue will finally be launching transatlantic flights out of Boston. As of August 2022, the airline will fly daily between Boston and London Gatwick, and then as of September 2022, the airline will fly daily between Boston and London Heathrow. This complements existing service from New York to the two London-area airports. It’s great to see JetBlue add more transatlantic flights, as the airline offers an innovative product.
Unfortunately the service will be delayed by a few weeks due to the late delivery of some new Airbus jets.
There’s no denying that JetBlue is in two very competitive markets, though, and I’m curious to see if the airline can establish itself with limited frequencies and no lounges.
I have found it impossible to book business class LHR to Boston with Jet blue 24 September I assume there is yet another delay (yet they list the light!)
It's a pity Jet Blue will not be offering an early morning direct flight from Boston to London. I find an overnight journey leaves me with awful jet lag on the other end but if you leave early morning (with the time difference) it's almost bed time when you arrive and a much easier adjustment. I have been traveling between the two cities for 50 years and I'll be sticking with BA for this very reason.
I still don’t see how flying a plane with at most 132 passengers can make a profit. Also flying in to both LGW and LHR adds more costs by having assets at both airports plus losing the scheduling flexibility of having all your people and airplanes at one airport. Unless they think the can charge premium prices I don’t see how it adds up.
Not sure why B6 is trying so hard to get into transatlantic game when they aren't really beating the legacy carriers on price. that would seem like the only way to lure (loyal) business customers away from loyalty programs, lounges, etc.
Can you earn AA miles when flying on B6 on these international routes that they compete on?
jetblue didn't really change the fare between NYC and london, and I don't think it will in Boston route. Jetblue is weirdly always more expensive than legacy carriers on NYC-Lon route and it doesn't offer cheap one way fare either, so I am really struggling to see why one would fly jetblue. On top of that, they don't sell flights to other cities in the US, ecept a few....So not very useful for most people
JetBlue offering to buy SPIRIT Air and knock our the Frontier purchase?!?!?! WOW.
The lack of lounge access is really very annoying, yes there are lounges you can buy into but still Jet Blue seem to be price matching on the LHR-JFK route with the existing main airlines.
Maybe they’ll fly the NK Big Front Seat to Europe once they win the bidding fee battle- B6 just bid for NK.
Not sure of the rationale of them trying to buy NK unless they are looking to acquire planes and pilots at lower pay or are looking to run 2 different airlines (keeping the Spirit brand in the budget space) and the JetBlue brand in the more premium space) and expecting to save on back office expenses. If it's the former, then the integration will be messy because they will be bringing a ton of new...
Not sure of the rationale of them trying to buy NK unless they are looking to acquire planes and pilots at lower pay or are looking to run 2 different airlines (keeping the Spirit brand in the budget space) and the JetBlue brand in the more premium space) and expecting to save on back office expenses. If it's the former, then the integration will be messy because they will be bringing a ton of new aircraft onboard all at once and losing the core spirit customer who is looking for cheap fares unless they do a phased in approach of gradually moving staff and aircraft to JetBlue over several years and finally phase out the Spirit brand.
A widebody will always be a more comfortable flight across the pond. Not to mention Heathrow slots aren't cheap. Much easier to cover that cost with 300ish seats versus 150.
Not always more comfortable. The other choice is often 17" width and 30-31" pitch on a 9-abreast 787 or 10-abreast 777. Makes the 18" width/32"+ pitch on the A321LR sound pretty nice.
Landing fees are also dependent on the capacity of the plane. A flybe dash 8 didn't pay the same amount that a BA 747 did
In front, sure.... but if you're a Y traveler, then that's utter nonsense. It's not a hard choice between 18inch wide 32inch pitch being offered here on the narrowbody, versus the hell that is a 10abreast 777 seat. Higher ceiling does you what good in that situation?
Ah yes, nice to see posts about costs to fly an A321 vs A330 across the pond. I see you don't realize the costs are roughly the same but an A321 is much easier to fill with a very differentiated (and better) product for economy and business for JetBlue. And, might I add, JetBlue has been flying this route since last year out of JFK with more competition and high load factors.
Also, their...
Ah yes, nice to see posts about costs to fly an A321 vs A330 across the pond. I see you don't realize the costs are roughly the same but an A321 is much easier to fill with a very differentiated (and better) product for economy and business for JetBlue. And, might I add, JetBlue has been flying this route since last year out of JFK with more competition and high load factors.
Also, their London flights have a very high on-time performance so far (from JFK). With a "meltdown" every few months, your chances of a very good experience are far greater than not. I sense UA DL OAL fanboys here.
The DOT doesn't track international flights but they do track domestic flights and B6 has consistently been at the bottom of the industry (9 out of 10) for years and B6' complaint ratio is also near the bottom and getting worse.
It's not about fanboyism. It's facts whether some like them or not.
B6 will find people to fly to Europe but they will be a niche airline and will not have a cost advantage because their cost per seat on the A321 will not be lower than widebody legacy carriers.
The biggest threat to B6 - not just on their transatlantic system but nationwide - is that jet fuel prices yesterday soared to over $7/gallon due to refinery shortages in both the US and Europe resulting...
B6 will find people to fly to Europe but they will be a niche airline and will not have a cost advantage because their cost per seat on the A321 will not be lower than widebody legacy carriers.
The biggest threat to B6 - not just on their transatlantic system but nationwide - is that jet fuel prices yesterday soared to over $7/gallon due to refinery shortages in both the US and Europe resulting in the highest jet fuel crack spreads in decades. While $7/gallon for jet fuel is not sustainable and likely will not last, the US already has higher jet fuel prices than other regions of the world according to IATA.
B6 wasn't expected to be profitable this year and doesn't have an effective strategy to control fuel costs. In contrast, Alaska and Southwest both hedge will hedge reduce their fuel costs while Delta's refinery strategy is specifically designed to protect them from high jet fuel cracks spreads. AS DL and WN were all expected to be profitable even before the latest runup in fuel costs while AA B6 and UA were expected to lose money.
Starting new markets in the midst of potentially record high fuel prices w/o a cost advantage makes B6' transatlantic highly risky. If fuel costs in the NE don't come down, multiple airlines including B6 will be dramatically cutting flights.
Brand new A321LR will still be much better than older A330, 777-200ER, 757 and 767 rust buckets.
And also better than empty 777-300ER/747/747-8/A380.
Many of those “rust buckets” are already paid off which is why they’re all still flying. B6 is buying these new 321s on credit. The economics of airline profitability is much more complicated than fuel efficiency alone.
There is so much saturation in the Boston market.
Will they really be able to fill 48 business seats?
United alone, flies there premium configuration from Boston with Polaris pods, adding substantial business capacity
Having flown B6 on the JFK-LHR route to try it out a few months ago, it is nice to see them add this service out of BOS as well. The service was quite good and the food and beverage a cut above. Unfortunately, B6 is an unreliable airline when it comes to schedules and seems to suffer operational melt downs in an epic way every few months, which is why I generally avoid them.