JetBlue Airways just got that much closer to its long-time goal of opening U.S. to London routes with the allocation of 270 slots a month at London’s Heathrow Airport, whose slots are carefully limited.
Although JetBlue has not announced a date for starting its service, the allocation starts phasing in August 2 with 14 weekly slots, enough for one round trip a day, rising to 22 slots starting September 13, and then 28 slots from Sept. 20 to October 30. JetBlue expects to offer London flights from both New York and Boston.
Because slots at Heathrow are tightly limited, they are usually expensive to buy and hard to find sellers, although the situation during the pandemic is not clear. Some airlines have gone out of business; others have suspended services that would have forfeited slots under a temporarily-suspended ‘use it or lose it’ rule.
No announcement has been made whether the slots are a permanent award, or just for now, and JetBlue, which has also applied for slots at other London airports is still mum on where they intend to fly. The carrier has 270 slots for London Gatwick. Whichever airport the airline flies to first, it’s already assigned its planes: brand-new A321LRs bought with London in mind and equipped with the fancy Mint Studio seats seen above. Oh, and regular economy, too.
