JetBlue Airways’ once-celebrated service between Broward County and Tallahassee is ending as the New York-based carrier now says the volume of business does not justify keeping the route. In the meantime, the company is mounting service initiatives elsewhere between Florida and the Northeast in a quest for routes that show a promise of profits.
“Exiting a market is a difficult decision and we were privileged to have served Tallahassee,” according to a statement the airline distributed last week. “We are doing this to make investments in other parts of our network.”
The action represents a far cry from the company’s expectations upon announcing the service last year, when an executive said, “the response in Florida to this much-needed connection between the state capital and South Florida has been incredible.”
For JetBlue, the route was the leading edge of a proposed 250-flight-a-day operating plan announced in 2023 that envisioned Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport as a centerpiece player in a Florida-centric network of operations after JetBlue bought out South Florida-based Spirit Airlines. But in the the end, the $3.8 billion buyout of Spirit never came to pass as a Boston federal judge blocked the takeover on antitrust grounds.
After several months of operating a daily northbound and a daily southbound flight between Fort Lauderdale and the state capital, JetBlue said the route was “underperforming.”
“JetBlue will reduce flying on underperforming routes across its network, with a focus on improving reliability of the airline’s operation,” the airline said in a statement.
The last Tallahassee flights to land and take off from the state capital will be October 27. Customers who bought tickets for travel after that date will receive refunds, the airline said.
After the JetBlue flights cease, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Silver Airways will be the carriers serving Tallahassee International Airport.
Besides Tallahassee, JetBlue said it is also halting service to the following destinations in its network:
- Burbank, California
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Guadaloupe (Caribbean)
- Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
- Palm Springs, California
- San Antonio, Texas
Both JetBlue and Spirit have been struggling to cope with financial losses that have dogged them sinceduring the COVID-19 pandemic.
Joanna Geraghty, the new JetBlue CEO, has sought to weed out routes that don’t make money and find destinations where JetBlue can wield an advantage over other carriers.
In March, the company announced what amounted to be a first round of cuts from its network.
New England / New York to Florida surge
JetBlue is now focusing on expanding service out of Boston, where it has operated for two decades, as well as Providence, Rhode Island; Hartford, Connecticut; Portland, Maine; Manchester, New Hampshire; and Buffalo, New York. Flights are being added from Boston to Florida destinations including Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Miami, Orlando, Fort Myers, Sarasota and Tampa.
The airline is also targeting various Caribbean destinations from Boston.
The company is also adding service across Upstate New York in Albany, the state capital, and Buffalo and Syracuse. It expects to launch nonstop service from Buffalo to Palm Beach International Airport, for example, in October.
“Buffalo and Albany will each see a second daily flight added this winter to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, while Syracuse will get the convenience of a second daily flight to Orlando,” the airline said.
In October, JetBlue expects to launch service for the first time from Long Island MacArthur Airport at Islip, New York, four-times weekly flights to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. with daily flights to Orlando.
By February, JetBlue added, it expects to be operating 225 daily flights from Florida, “bringing the airline’s average peak daily departures from the state up eight percent compared to the same time last year.”
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