After its failed attempt to acquire Spirit, for which it gave up on its Northeast Alliance with American, JetBlue is retrenching in an effort to stop the bleeding. While it may not seem like it, this can have an impact on Hawaii travelers, as JetBlue is a major Hawaiian codeshare partner. For now.
JetBlue is not in a good place. Not only are they bleeding cash, but their entire strategy went up in smoke when their merger with Spirit was blocked. This was compounded by the fact that they gave up their alliance with American Airlines in hopes that doing so would lessen regulatory scrutiny on their merger. Not only did that plan not work, but it took away their fallback strategy. So, now, the airline has to figure out a way to survive on its own. As a result, JetBlue is retrenching to stem the bleeding.
JetBlue is Retrenching
Yesterday, JetBlue announced a lot of changes to its route network. That in itself isn’t all that surprising, but it highlights just how much work the airlines has ahead as it seeks to return to profitability. At any rate, with as JetBlue is retrenching, here are the changes we’ll see in the near term.
Market Departures
On the extreme end of things, JetBlue is completely leaving the following markets:
- Kansas City
- Bogota, Colombia
- Quito, Ecuador
- Lima, Peru
- Newburgh (Hudson Valley), New York
Airline officials state that these destinations are unprofitable, and that departing them will allow them to make better use of their aircraft. It’s worth noting that Newburgh hasn’t seen service since before the pandemic, so this specific departure is more of a formality.
Service Reductions
Outside of outright departures, JetBlue is also significantly scaling back operations in some markets, especially out west. Specifically, JetBlue is going to slash its routes out of Los Angeles from 34 to 24, discontinuing service between LAX and the following destinations:
- Las Vegas
- Miami
- Reno-Tahoe
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Costa Rica
- Cancun
- Puerto Vallarta
This move isn’t especially surprising, as JetBlue was never really able to gain a foothold out west. That is, after all, why they tried to buy Virgin America, and why Alaska overpaid for that acquisition – to shut JetBlue out. It’s also part of their rationale for going after Spirit; to strengthen their foothold in California. That said, JetBlue will continue to fly from LAX to destinations along the East Coast and the Caribbean, along with Utah.
Out East, JetBlue is reducing capacity out of Fort Lauderdale, cutting service to Atlanta, Nashville, Austin, New Orleans, and Salt Lake City. Similar reductions are occurring at Tampa, too, with the following destinations getting the ax: Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, JFK, Detroit, Orlando, and Salt Lake City.
It’s worth noting that all of these reductions, and the above market departures, are effective June 13, 2024.
Pratt & Whitney Rears Its Ugly Head
While the above cuts are, undoubtedly, focused on ridding the airline of unprofitable routes, it’s also looking to free up airframes as the lovely Pratt & Whitney PW1100 issue comes for it, too. Airline officials state that, at any given time throughout this year, roughly 12 jets will be out of service for their required inspections and recall work. It’s a situation I hope they deal with better than their friends over at Hawaiian have.
Capacity Boosts
Even though JetBlue is retrenching, it will need to find additional places to use its jets, even when accounting for backups for planes taken out of service for the PW1100 issue. That means bulking up in markets that have track records of better performance. That means increasing services in Buffalo, New York, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. In San Juan, specifically, that includes boosting capacity to Orlando, Tampa, New York JFK, and Hartford.
In an undisclosed nearer term, JetBlue also plans to reducing capacity from some Southeast cities to boost frequencies to popular destinations, including Cancun; Montego Bay, Jamaica; and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
Impacts on Hawaiian
I haven’t looked through Hawaiian’s reservation system to see how these changes may impact them, but their route map certainly shows there will be impacts since JetBlue is retrenching.
As best I can tell, all of the LAX cuts were available as codeshare flights. The West Coast ones aren’t really going to be that big an issue, though, as Hawaiian flies direct to all of those destinations with the exception of Reno-Tahoe. And even then, other carriers do offer one-stop alternatives, too, though that does degrade Hawaiian’s market position a little.
But as we all know, this could be all moot if Alaska’s acquisition of Hawaiian goes through. After all, with Hawaiian part as the Alaska Air Group, Hawaiian customers will have access to, not only Alaska’s entire network, but Oneworld partner American’s, too.
JetBlue is Retrenching, Final Thoughts
Though large cuts like this are never easy, JetBlue pulling back like this is entirely necessary. Hopefully, doing so will allow it to better focus on its core markets in Boston and New York, and allow it to build itself back up in the mid-term. That said, I’m sure Delta and American must be pleased with the upcoming changes. Salt Lake City, a Delta hub, is seeing several cuts, as is American’s bread and butter Florida-Latin America routes.
Of course, these cuts won’t be enough on their own. It’ll be interesting to see how JetBlue’s strategy evolves from here. I just hope they don’t take their overall cuts too far like American under Doug Parker did.