Lately we’ve seen airlines completely change their approach to route planning. With business travel likely to be way down for many years, airlines are now going after leisure travelers with their new schedules. In particular, the focus seems to be on Florida, Mexico, and Caribbean islands.
In this post:
JetBlue’s latest expansion
JetBlue has today announced plans to launch two dozen new routes in November and December, including lots of point-to-point routes. This follows JetBlue announcing it would bring Mint service to Newark, and also follows JetBlue’s recent expansion in Los Angeles.
As JetBlue describes its latest expansion, these routes are “aimed at immediately generating cash and capturing traffic in new markets.” It’s rare that you see an airline announce intentions that clearly. 😉 Every new market has been identified as one where JetBlue anticipates increased demand for leisure travel.
All of these new flights are on sale as of today. Let’s take a look at all of the new routes, and some are even operated by aircraft with Mint.
New JetBlue routes from Los Angeles (LAX)
JetBlue is increasingly making Los Angeles a hub, as it pulls out of Long Beach altogether. JetBlue is launching seven new routes out of Los Angeles, including to:
- Cancun (CUN) twice daily as of November 19, 2020
- Charleston (CHS) once daily as of December 18, 2020
- Liberia (LIR) twice weekly as of December 18, 2020 (MINT)
- Palm Beach (PBI) once daily as of November 19, 2020 (MINT)
- Raleigh-Durham (RDU) once daily as of December 18, 2020
- Richmond (RIC) once daily as of December 18, 2020
- San Jose (SJO) once daily as of December 18, 2020
New JetBlue routes from Newark (EWR)
JetBlue is continuing to increase its presence in Newark, clearly trying to give United some competition. JetBlue is launching seven new routes out of Newark, including to:
- Aruba (AUA) once daily as of November 19, 2020 (MINT)
- Cancun (CUN) twice daily as of November 19, 2020
- Montego Bay (MBJ) once daily as of November 19, 2020
- Nassau (NAS) once daily as of November 19, 2020
- Punta Cana (PUJ) once daily as of November 19, 2020
- Turks and Caicos (PLS) once daily as of November 19, 2020
- St. Maarten (SXM) once daily as of November 19, 2020 (MINT)
New JetBlue routes from Raleigh-Durham (RDU)
JetBlue is launching four new routes out of Raleigh-Durham, including to:
- Cancun (CUN) once daily as of November 19, 2020
- Fort Myers (RSW) once daily as of November 19, 2020
- Montego Bay (MBJ) once daily as of November 19, 2020
- San Juan (SJU) once daily as of November 19, 2020
New JetBlue routes from Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
Fort Lauderdale is already a huge JetBlue hub, but the airline is adding some very cool nonstop flights from there. JetBlue is launching two new routes out of Fort Lauderdale, including to:
- Bozeman (BZN) twice weekly as of December 18, 2020
- Palm Springs (PSP) twice weekly as of December 18, 2020
New JetBlue routes from Tampa (TPA)
JetBlue is launching two new routes out of Tampa, including to:
- Cancun (CUN) once daily as of November 19, 2020
- Richmond (RIC) once daily as of November 19, 2020
Other new JetBlue routes
JetBlue is launching a couple of other routes:
- Richmond (RIC) to Las Vegas (LAS) once daily as of December 18, 2020
- San Francisco (SFO) to Cancun (CUN) twice daily as of November 19, 2020
Bottom line
Virtually all airlines are expanding to markets they didn’t previously serve, focused on capturing short-term leisure traffic. With Mexico open to American tourists with few restrictions, and with Caribbean islands largely opening up with testing, JetBlue is understandably focusing on those destinations for international leisure travel.
It’s so cool to see all of these point-to-point routes added. Living in South Florida, I’m particularly interested in the Fort Lauderdale to Bozeman flight — what an easy way to get to Yellowstone!
What do you make of JetBlue’s latest route announcement?
Super excited about CHS-LAX! First time we've had a nonstop to California. Now if we can just get a flight to Las Vegas!
@Mark you sound excited at the prospect of a much larger second wave.
@lucky @anyone, wonder if someone can answer, how the heck does B6 plan on being profitable by matching UA's 2x daily sfo-cun route? What is their plan there/on these types of well-established legacy leisure routes and how do they believe they are able to double that market?
Second Question: Is UA simply holding out on beginning SFO-Latin America operations (SJO/LIR/LIM/BOG/GRU etc. which might actually work decently) because they don't want to make IAH redundant?
I live in PSP and let me tell you, weather wise, December's cool, low humidity days are delightful compared to FLL. The only thing I can figure here is that JB is linking two cities with large LGBTQ populations eager to resume travel and hope to find plenty of customers.
PSP-FLL have huge travel savvy gay communities. That’s the market. Makes sense.
@Jan and @Business Guy
Spain and France are both experiencing a SECOND wave (which was to be expected). The US is still in it's FIRST wave. Just be prepared because the second wave will come, we have incompetent leaders at the helm.
Did I miss any updates on the London route?
Interesting that they are going to fight the incumbents AA and DL on RDU-LAX. DL used to sell a lot of Comfort+ on that route. On the other hand, American didn't always run it seven days a week. Hopefully B6 will avoid the redeye.
@Business Guy I did, I'm just saying that USA and France/Spain now has roughly the same cases/100k therefore there's no reason for banned travel between these countries
@jan - maybe you should actually look into the Spanish and French numbers... unlike the United States those countries have spikes in COVID cases...
Wait... so JB drops the PSP-JFK route but adds PSP-FLL? Doesn't make sense. They complained that the PSP-JFK wasn't profitable but it was a red-eye flight that did not offer Mint service. That's the dumbest thing ever since PSP is a huge First/Business class location. Nobody wants an economy red-eye out of PSP! I don't see this FLL route lasting long, either.
@David I agree. Spain/France should already open to USA (and USA needs to reciprocate), I've been itching to go back myself
@NAUgrad05, I love Boise but Bozeman and Yellowstone just have name recognition in the East that Idaho lacks. Let's just keep it our secret.
While I believe that people want to travel, many in NY are being very cautious.
I have heard from friends, that the do not want to go to the Caribbean because they do not want to possibly overrun the healthcare systems there, where the locals desperately need it.
Many will simply be staying in the NYC area or heading to the Ritz’s in Miami.
Ben,
So you don't hate going to FLL from your home enough to stop you from going there for a nonstop flight if one is offered from FLL but not MIA? You've posted before that you hate the trip to FLL versus ten minutes from home to MIA, yet you're excited about the Bozeman flight from FLL.
Bozeman gets a Jet Blue route, but Boise can't get Jet Blue?!
Very good. Keep Americans vacationing in Mexico and other Senor Frogs locations in the Caribbean.
Keep them out of the rest of the world
@David - Where would the US fall in your stupid scheme? With the countries who continue to see a downward trend in daily cases? Or with Spain/France where they are seeing massive spikes in cases? Before you tell me I am wrong, Google covid cases for Spain, France and USA. The graphs tell a pretty simple story.
Punta Canada lol Yup! they should just colonize it
With who knows what business travel will look like particularly over the next 12 months I'm assuming airlines need to do a bit of "experimenting" with routes.
The countries who have things under control should form their own travel corridor, while the dumpster fire countries should also do the same (with other dumpster fire countries of course, not the safe ones).
Of course, that would require the countries to update their lists dynamically, something I'm not sure the US is capable of, at least not for a few more months.
@Sharon
Oh for sure. With wealthier Americans not able to fly to Europe many of them are going to flock t to the Caribbean. Add in the fact the rest of the world does not particularly wan't Americans flying there Cancun and Mexico in general is very much open to Americans coming.
We will probably see a lot of capacity going South of the border. Cancun was always a big destination with American sending...
@Sharon
Oh for sure. With wealthier Americans not able to fly to Europe many of them are going to flock t to the Caribbean. Add in the fact the rest of the world does not particularly wan't Americans flying there Cancun and Mexico in general is very much open to Americans coming.
We will probably see a lot of capacity going South of the border. Cancun was always a big destination with American sending 787s from Chicago there. It will be interesting to see if there is any long lasting effects of diminished demand to Europe even as recovery is underway.
FLL to PSP just doesn’t make sense to me.
Punta Canada lol ;)
Some of these routes are logical, though others not so much.
I can't see Richmond or Charleston to LAX being lucrative during COIVD.
Also, is demand to the Caribbean really going to be higher this year than years in the past, I doubt it. Now Jetblue is going to have up to 4 daily flights to Aruba from JFK + EWR, seems a little much.
If people actually start to travel again, Cancun...
Some of these routes are logical, though others not so much.
I can't see Richmond or Charleston to LAX being lucrative during COIVD.
Also, is demand to the Caribbean really going to be higher this year than years in the past, I doubt it. Now Jetblue is going to have up to 4 daily flights to Aruba from JFK + EWR, seems a little much.
If people actually start to travel again, Cancun airport is going to be slammed on Saturdays, with 15 flights alone just coming from JFK + EWR.
Why isn’t LAX listed as a new route from RDU?