JetBlue Is Exiting Multiple U.S. and International Cities and Canceling Dozens of Routes — Here's Where The airline says it is scaling back to focus on more profitable routes.
By Emily Rella
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
Loyal JetBlue fans who fly their regular, trusted routes might be in for some changes as the company announced Wednesday that it is cutting certain cities from its schedule.
The airline will no longer be offering service to and from Kansas City, Missouri, and Newburgh, New York in the U.S. and internationally will be exiting Bogotá, Colombia, Quito, Ecuador, and Lima, Peru, effective June 13.
The airline will also begin limiting multiple flight routes out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Los Angeles, California as well as suspending service from New York's JFK airport to Detroit and from Orlando, Florida to Salt Lake City, Utah.
Related: JetBlue-Spirit merger: US Judge hits the brakes
"These moves will allow us to redeploy 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," said JetBlue's VP of network planning and airline partnerships, Dave Jehn, in an internal company memo viewed by CBS News. "With less aircraft time available and the need to improve our financial performance, more than ever, every route has to earn its right to stay in the network."
The decision comes after nearly two years of mounting losses (roughly $2 billion since 2019) and after two failed mergers.
Last May, a federal judge called for Jetblue and its partnership with American Airlines in Boston and New York to cease operations, and in January of this year, a separate judge blocked a mega-merger between JetBlue and Spirit Airlines that would have been worth an estimated $3.8 billion.
According to data by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Jetblue ranked 14 out of 15 for the percentage of on-time arrivals in 2023, with only 67.08% of flights arriving on time to their destination.
In a Q4 2023 earnings report, the airline predicted that it would see a revenue loss between 5% and 9% in Q1 2024, with capacity dropping up to 6%.
The company also saw a net loss of $104 million in Q4 2023.
"2024 is an important year of change for JetBlue and we are taking aggressive action, including launching $300 million of revenue initiatives, to return to profitability and deliver value for our shareholders," said CEO Joanna Geraghty at the time. "We are moving with renewed rigor and discipline as we refocus our energy and play to our strengths, further deepening our unique competitive positioning."
JetBlue was relatively flat at a 0.59% increase in valuation year over year as of Wednesday morning.
