Majority of which were routes that were added during the pandemic

Low cost carrier, JetBlue has axed several routes in what has been described as a pandemic-era shake-up at the New York-based carrier.

The airline has filed a slew of cuts beginning this fall, the majority of which were routes that were added during the pandemic. Jet Blue confirmed the move yesterday in a statement released to the public.

In the statement JetBlue says: “Beginning this fall, we plan to adjust our flying on some of the routes we launched in the pandemic, so we can re-deploy those aircraft into our focus city growth.”

Perhaps the biggest theme among JetBlue’s far-reaching cuts is the pullback across Florida.

Seventeen of the 27 route cuts are for flights to or from the Sunshine State. Among the flights axed are some of those out of Philadelphia to Fort Myers, Orlando, Tampa and West Palm Beach.

During the pandemic, JetBlue launched numerous routes from Raleigh-Durham (RDU), due to increased demand among leisure travelers. Despite the leisure-focused strategy, the carrier’s RDU growth also had a competitive angle going up against Delta in one of its focus cities.

Throwing in the towel on eight of its RDU routes

However, JetBlue is now throwing in the towel on eight of its RDU routes. Many will still be operated by Delta, along with other competitors like Frontier and United.

Despite the cuts, RDU will still be a large outstation for JetBlue, with seven routes to many of its largest airports, including:

• Boston (BOS)
• Cancun (CUN)
• Newark (EWR)
• Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
• New York-JFK
• Los Angeles (LAX)
• San Juan (SJU)

JetBlue is also cutting three Austin routes, two of which it launched during the pandemic, including flights to RDU and San Francisco. Service from Austin to Orlando first started in May 2008, but will now end in June 2021.

The move to pare down flights to Austin comes just days after its newest partner, American Airlines, announced a major expansion in the city, with 14 new domestic and international routes launching in the coming months. JetBlue is going to be smaller in Pittsburgh with its latest cuts.

Flights to both Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach are getting axed, leaving the city served exclusively from JetBlue’s focus city in Boston.

In its statement JetBlue remarked, “with travelers returning to the skies, we’re getting a clearer picture of where demand is strongest. JetBlue-operated flying (as measured by available seat miles (ASMs) is expected to increase by three per cent over 2019 in October and includes some 40 new routes set to launch in the coming months – many enabled by our successful Northeast Alliance with American Airlines”.

The airline noted that, as customers return to more expected booking patterns, JetBlue is looking at how it will adjust its schedule and focus on continuing growth that furthers its network strategy.