JetBlue Takes The Axe To DC’s National Airport With 27% Service Cuts – View from the Wing

JetBlue is reducing service at Washington’s National airport this winter. That’s one of only three airports in the country where the number of flights are limited by law, making it easier than in most places to make money.

Aviation watchdog JonNYC reports that 27% of JetBlue’s total flying, or 7 out of 27 flights, will be suspended October 27, 2024 through March 29, 2025. They are dropping Fort Myers service permanently, and also eliminating the currently suspended Washington National to New York JFK.

Here’s a some (more coming): pic.twitter.com/SkwmpKneKu

— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) August 29, 2024

The number of Boston flights is reduced by 3. The number of Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Orlando flights each get reduced by one.

Their new plan involves shrinking unprofitable flying – gutting Los Angeles and making cuts to transatlantic flying, as well as eliminating routes and cities. They have already announced they’re pulling out of 15 cities entirely. They’ve also deferred delivery of 44 Airbus planes.

JetBlue is aggressively offering status to competitor frequent flyers, and their pilots are worried about wages.

The airline’s new focus is leisure and visiting friends and relatives traffic, plus cross country flying from their strongest cities of New York JFK and Boston as well as Florida. They will continue their Puerto Rico and Caribbean flying. But they are no longer chasing corporate travel. In this context, reducing winter flying between Florida and the Northeast is actually surprising.

It’s not clear what will happen to the slots during the winter period. Presumably, since the airline has minimum use obligations to meet for its slots, they’ll lease some of them out (and where others go unleased, they might vary flight times to meet each slot’s 80% requirement).