JetBlue, still reeling from the after-effects of court decisions that ended both its Northeast Alliance with American and its attempt to acquire Spirit, is making more cuts as it tries to return to profitability.
The new round pulls the airline out of seven cities, cuts 24 routes and focuses on building strength in New England, its strongest region. A number of new routes are also being added, mostly on New England to Florida routes.
The cities that will lose JetBlue service are Charlotte, Minneapolis/St Paul, San Antonio, Burbank, Tallahassee and Palm Springs in the U.S. and Pointe-a-Pitre in Guadaloupe. Seven routes that have been year-round will stop in October and resume in April, including the Boston to Amsterdam route. Another 18 routes will end in October and not resume.
On the plus side, JetBlue will use more of its planes equipped with ‘Mint’ luxury seating on a number of domestic routes where it can sell them more readily than on some of the international routes it has cut back in recent months.
Cities that will get more service include Manchester, NH which serves northern and western Boston suburbs, Providence, RI and Hartford.
