With airline traffic generally down, it’s unusual to see airlines planning out new routes, but JetBlue is moving ahead with 24 new routes that seem designed to take advantage of the cautious approach others are taking to restarting their existing routes.
United, in particular, has been cautious; its October schedule shows only 36% of the flights it flew last year. JetBlue already stuck its toe into two of United’s key routes in July with service between United’s key East Coast hub at Newark, and is now adding nine new Newark destinations just before Thanksgiving, all headed for warm weather in Mexico and the Caribbean, hoping to grab some of United’s passengers.
With business flying down, JetBlue appears ready to throw more equipment at whatever leisure travelers it can find; its other November route additions, challenging both United and Delta, add more warm-weather flights from Los Angeles, Raleigh-Durham, San Francisco and Tampa.
And then in December, a few more routes, including transcontinental flights between Los Angeles and two East Coast cities, Charleston and Richmond, as well as a Las Vegas flight to Richmond.
It remains to be seen, of course, how many of these routes will succeed for JetBlue, and how many it may keep as traffic revives and the traditional carriers revive some of the routes. It may prove to be a live-action test for future network expansion.
