JetBlue will launch service this winter from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa and Norfolk, Va., and will also bring back service from Fort Lauderdale to Atlanta and Austin, Texas, after yearlong suspensions.
The carrier will fly daily from its South Florida focus city to Tampa beginning Dec. 4, competing against Southwest and Spirit. Regional Florida airline Silver also flew the route several times daily until liquidating last month.
JetBlue will launch Fort Lauderdale-Norfolk service on Dec. 4, flying the route five-times weekly in competition with Spirit, Cirium flight schedule data shows.
JetBlue connected Fort Lauderdale and Austin until April 2024. When the service resumes on Nov. 20, it will be twice daily, in competition with Spirit and Southwest.
The New York-based airline dropped Atlanta service in June 2024. That route will resume Dec. 4 with daily flights, battling for market share with Delta, Frontier and Spirit. Southwest pulled out of Fort Lauderdale-Atlanta in April.
JetBlue also plans to beef up frequencies from Fort Lauderdale to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Raleigh-Durham in North Carolina and Richmond, Va., beginning this fall. The increases will bring the carrier to 95 daily departures from Fort Lauderdale serving 37 cities in December.
The moves are part of JetBlue's realignment toward its core markets of strength as it strives to return to profitability for the first time since 2019. In June, CEO Joanna Geraghty told JetBlue staff that won't happen this year, while saying that saying that additional underperforming routes would be axed.
One casualty: the carrier's last remaining Miami route. It serves Boston and will end on Sept. 2.