JetBlue to increase Florida flights by 8% year over year

JetBlue is revamping its strategy and its fleet. The New York-headquartered airline company plans to refocus on leisure travel and visiting friends and relatives, at the same time as it is upping its service to Florida, according to a statement. 

The shift largely begins this winter and includes several flights added between the west coast of the Sunshine State and New England, where JetBlue is increasing its service as part of a strategy to deploy “in places it can win, executing on its efforts to return the airline’s business to profitability,” JetBlue says in the statement.

By February, JetBlue will increase its average peak daily departures from the Sunshine State by 8% year over year and average more than 225 daily flights from Florida, the statement says. 

Among the destinations adding routes to the Gulf Coast are Providence, Rhode Island; Boston; and Manchester, New Hampshire. 

Starting Oct. 27, JetBlue will offer flights between Providence and Tampa as well as Fort Myers. Flights will be offered one time a day through the winter.

New flights will also be added to and from Boston, for those flying out of Fort Myers, Sarasota and Tampa, according to a statement.

In addition, JetBlue will launch winter service between Fort Myers and Manchester in January, according to the airline, which will be kicking off service out of New Hampshire.

As it increases its routes in some places, JetBlue says it will reduce flying on underperforming routes across its network. It did not specify which routes may be impacted.

While it increases destinations, the airline is making investments in its aircraft, too. It has replaced more than half of its Embraer E190 fleet with the state-of-the-art Airbus A220 aircraft.

“We have already taken delivery of more than 30 A220s and replaced over 60 percent of our E190s, so this transition is well underway,” Marty St. George, president of JetBlue, says in a statement. “Whether it's the extra space or the modern amenities, we believe our customers will love the enhanced travel experience aboard the A220.”

The A220 features a new two-by-three seating configuration that JetBlue says provides the widest coach seats of any single-aisle aircraft as well as extra-large overhead bins; bigger windows; USB and AC power outlets in every seat; mood lighting that changes throughout the day; and quieter and more fuel efficient engines compared with the E190, according to a statement. JetBlue also claims to offer the most legroom in coach based on average fleet-wide seat pitch for U.S. airlines.