The JetBlue drop-off area at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Oct. 31, 2023.
Leslie Josephs/CNBC
JetBlue Airways told staff this week that it will cut some routes and service as it struggles to return to profitability and grapples with the fallout of its blocked plan to buy Spirit Airlines.
JetBlue said it will stop flying from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport to Portland, Oregon, and to San Jose, California, and from Westchester, New York, and Martha’s Vineyard, according to an internal memo, which was reviewed by CNBC. The airline will also suspend service from New York to Ponce, Puerto Rico, and to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in October.
“We can’t fly everywhere we’d like, so we need to be highly selective about where we point our aircraft in order to turn a profit, support our overall network strategy, and offer a reliable operation,” wrote Dave Jehn, vice president of network planning and airline partnerships, in a note to staff.
The airline is instead focusing on leisure routes, adding service throughout the Caribbean and to Paris, the memo said.
JetBlue is also ending the so-called “BlueCity” status, a type of focus city for the airline, at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, Jehn said. He added that the carrier will “provide a number of options moving forward” to staff there.
JetBlue didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Jehn said the changes were in the works for almost a month, before the court decision that blocked JetBlue’s planned $3.8 billion acquisition of Spirit on antitrust grounds. Judge William Young’s opinion only blocks the merger that the companies agreed to in July 2022, not a different proposed combination, should the airlines take that route.
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