JetBlue has announced that it will suspend flights from popular U.S. cities until further notice, including several routes from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport.
Travelers hoping to take flights from JFK Airport to Austin, Texas, Houston, and Miami, Florida should reconsider their travel plans, JetBlue Airways told its staff on Wednesday. He said the line was scheduled to be discontinued in 2025. CNBC.
Routes across the U.S. that major airlines have discontinued include flights from Westchester, New York, to Charleston, South Carolina, and from Jacksonville to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The airline is closing all flights out of San Jose and discontinuing its Mint business class service on flights to Seattle.
For those looking to fly across the Atlantic from JFK, the airline announced it would eliminate flights between the Big Apple and London's Gatwick. A second JFK-Paris flight is also scheduled to be canceled, CNBC reports.
The changes were announced as JetBlue's latest efforts to return to consistent profitability and reduce costs.
“Recently, we have been able to adjust our network in certain markets, remove some underperforming flights from the schedule, and redeploy resources, including our popular Mint service, to high-demand markets and new opportunities. ,” JetBlue said. CNBC In a statement.
The announcement comes after JetBlue said its revenue and bookings for November and December beat expectations, sending its stock price soaring more than 8% on Wednesday.
But the company said it has faced profitability issues in Florida since the end of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Florida remains a strong geography for JetBlue, but since COVID-19, the company has not been profitable due to the dominance of legacy airlines such as American Airlines and Delta Air Lines in Miami. “No,” said Dave Jenn, JetBlue's vice president of network planning and airline partnerships. Outlet.
JetBlue also said that ending JFK-Miami service would create overstaffing in Miami, so it is collaborating on options such as relocating crew members to other cities it serves.
JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty and her team are focused on cutting costs and weeding out unprofitable routes, Jen said.
However, the airline announced that it will continue to operate flights from Miami to Boston.
The company said travelers affected by the upcoming changes may choose alternative flight options or receive a refund if other routes are not available.
The announcement of the jet's permanent cancellation and rerouting comes as the airline and industry officials grapple with Pratt & Whitney's engine outage.
RTX, Pratt & Whitney's parent company, said in 2023: Rare powder metal defects This can lead to cracking of some engine parts.
At the time this issue was announced, an estimated 600 to 700 engines had to be inspected for cracks in the high-pressure turbine disks and high-pressure compressor disks. Each test takes up to approximately 300 days to perform.
According to aviation geekIn 2024, JetBlue grounded an average of about 11 aircraft due to engine failure. The New York-based airliner uses PW1100G and PW1500G engines to power its A220 and A321neo aircraft.
JetBlue said in its third-quarter earnings report that it expects the number of grounded aircraft to average in the mid-to-high 10th range by 2025.
The announcement also comes as one of the nation's top airline executives was gunned down at the Capitol on Wednesday for allegedly stuffing checked baggage fees, seat assignments and other perks to extract more money from passengers. This was the next presentation in the section.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, chairman of the Senate Investigations Subcommittee, has poached executives from American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Spirit Airlines, and Frontier Airlines, and has accused airlines of charging exploitative prices. criticized.
JetBlue executives were not among the airlines questioned by the committee.
