JetBlue is trimming its summer schedule from many stations, citing high fuel prices and staff shortages, but notable among the cuts is the retreat from Newark Liberty International Airport, a fortress hub of United Airlines.
JetBlue Trims Newark Schedule, Ceding Many Routes To United Airlines
JetBlue re-entered Newark (EWR) in July 2020, launching transcontinental service to Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO). The new routes were seen as a direct challenge to United Airlines, with JetBlue promising to hold fares in check.
Then in 2021 JetBlue announced a further expansion at Newark, with new service to 10 additional cities. That expansion continued with a number of new routes, including many which were in direct competition with United.
> Read More: JetBlue Challenges United In Newark With New Mint Service
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But JetBlue is cutting or suspending 27 routes this summer, including eight from Newark. Per Simply Flying, route suspensions include:
- Austin (AUS)
- Cancun (CUN)
- Boston (BOS)
- Key West (EYW)
- Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
- Cartagena (CTG)
- Chicago (O’Hare)
- Cleveland (CLE)
- Grand Cayman (GCM)
- Portland, Oregon (PDX)
- Port of Spain (POS)
- Providenciales (PLS)
- Seattle (SEA)
- St. Maarten (SXM)
- Hartford (BDL)
- Las Vegas (LAS)
- San Francisco (SFO)
- Nashville (BNA)
- Cancun (CUN)
- New York (JFK)
- Key West (EYW)
- Los Angeles (LAX)
- Austin (AUS)
- Raleigh Durham (RDU)
- San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO)
- West Palm Beach (PBI)
- Newark (EWR)
- Atlanta (ATL)
- Austin (AUS)
- Charleston (CHS)
- Jacksonville (JAX)
- Las Vegas (LAS)
- Phoenix (PHX)
- Raleigh Durham (RDU)
- San Diego (SAN)
The routes suspension run from late April to October. All routes remain in the winter schedule except for Nashville – Cancun and Austin – Cancun. However, don’t necessarily expect that to hold: it is far too early for carriers to finalize domestic winter schedules and I would expect many of the routes above ultimately not to operate.
Addressing the route cuts, a JetBlue spokesperson noted:
“Through the summer, we will temporarily suspend flying on a number of routes to support our fuel initiatives and further improve our operational performance. Many of these routes were chosen as they fall into one of three categories: long haul routes that burn more fuel; routes that don’t make financial sense at high fuel prices; or routes that present specific operational challenges.”
Of note, every route cut in Newark is also served by United Airlines. Spirit Airlines served four of nine destinations.
Other trends:
- 44% of the route cuts involve Florida
- 37% are above 2,000 miles
- 74% began after the pandemic
To that last point, we see most U.S. carriers adjust to more leisure-oriented travel during the pandemic, facing a steep decline in business travel that is only now beginning to return.
The drawback also represents a victory for Spirit Airlines in Fort Lauderdale.
CONCLUSION
United will celebrate this news, but consumers should not: it will mean higher fares. Even so, JetBlue’s routes cuts in Newark are a testament to United’s strength. JetBlue strategically chose which routes to abandon and its Newark cutbacks indicate United fiercely battled JetBlue on price, making those routes relatively less attractive as JetBlue faces staffing shortages and rising fuel prices.
What are your thoughts concerning the JetBlue Newark retreat?
image: Tomás Del Coro
Too bad, EWR => Vegas (and maybe San Diego as well?) were Mint routes with a product far superior to United’s. Had the pleasure of flying the former last July for $660 while Economy fares were $400…
What do you mean JetBlue “re-entered” Newark in 2020? They’ve been there since 2005 uninterrupted. They had been there for several years by that point. JetBlue is also staying on EWR-LAX and EWR-SFO, among many others. Not sure what you mean by “victory”, when they will still be a significant force on many routes. JetBlue will still serve over 20 destinations with from Newark this summer with multiple flights, in many markets both domestically and in the Caribbean. So while they are cutting some routes for sure, your portrayal of this seems misleading, especially since you do not mention what they are keeping and where.
Click bait indeed. Headline and story make no sense.
Jetblie has operations issues, who knows if they actually wanted to cut these or they were forced to. due to staffing. These are mostly all non hub routes so the easiest for them to drop. They have been throwing a lot at the wall the last year and a half, maybe some discipline is what hey need right now.
I’d much rather fly on United anyways. I was consistently non-plused with JetBlue when I flew with them and with their persistent operational issues I won’t be flying them again.
JetBlue increased its presence in Newark during the pandemic when air traffic was reduced due to closed borders and NYC lockdown. United was the dominant carrier pre-pandemic and they are just returning to their normal level of traffic. There simply isn’t room for JetBlue in EWR.
JetBlue was never going to win this fight at EWR, and I very much doubt their pull back has anything to do at all with staffing shortages or the price of jet fuel. We’ve seen JetBlue cancel routes all over the US over the past few months and I think the real reason behind it they don’t have the aircraft necessary to keep all those routes while defending both JFK and BOS against a re-surging Delta Airlines.
JetBlue and American both thought that together through their JV they could leapfrog over both United and Delta in New York and Northeast at large. The exact opposite has happened even though United sat on the sidelines at EWR until the bulk of runway construction was completed. However when EWR reopened the second runway it was full speed ahead for United at EWR and in less than 6 months after major construction wrapped up United is kicking JetBlue’s rear end at EWR. And Delta has been in full speed ahead mode at both JFK and BOS. From the look of things Delta is winning at both JFK and BOS, and United is clearly winning at EWR.
Click bait
Also overlooked:
JetBlue is growing destinations served & frequencies at LaGuardia Airport as part of its Northeast Alliance with American Airlines with up to 50 peak day departures announced last year planned for this summer.
So, while United’s vigorous defense of its fortress hub at Newark likely is a factor in JetBlue’s “seasonal suspension” of a large pool of routes at the airport, the high cost of fuel combined with a shortage of labor may have also forced the airline to concentrate resources for the LaGuardia expansion instead of challenging United at its fortress in a battle for market share in the routes its “suspending”.
Alas, another downside is that JetBlue’s chances for possibly splitting the 16 slot-pairs soon to be awarded by the US Dept of Transportation (DOT) with Spirit likely is also diminished as it’s hard to make a compelling case for more slots when you don’t use the ones you already have.
Then again, if Spirit is awarded the entire portfolio of 16 slot-pairs at Newark by the US DOT, perhaps JetBlue decided it’s better to scale back its plans to expand at the airport instead of fighting United at its fortress while also dealing with the intense pricing pressure & revenue dilution after Spirit expands there.
So this is why my flight to Atlanta got cancelled. Interesting because Newark is my home airport and it is always nice to see other options for domestic routes.
I have my family on a nonstop flight and now they changed to stop Newark to Boston long layover then Jacksonville. No way with 3 little kids. I want my money back.
It’s NJ, who cares?
This is a disingenuous article and shame for lack of true research on jetblues Newark strategy. If you look further they are opening up a crew base for both pilots and flight attendants army’s in Newark in June. This is a signal they are committed to growth. And said they will return due to delays in Newark facilities that won’t be up and running yet I’m the new terminal they will be at. Ie bag carousel for one. They have stated they plan to go up to almost double the flights they just had last summer. Newark also performed relatively well. So this isn’t a “retreat” or “win” for united. If I were united and see a crew base about to open up In Newark I would be concerned. This is was done more because of operational realities of the space they need to work with this summer.
This was a poorly written article with little research.
Go back to the middle of January 2022 and look at all the routes JetBlue has cut many of them started during the pandemic. If we are to focus on EWR JetBlue started cutting routes and frequencies out of EWR in November of 2021. Some of it was Omicron related but by the time we had gotten to the second half of January we were well past the Omicron surge and from that point on JetBlue has either suspended, canceled or reduced frequencies on many routes out of EWR. There latest round of route suspensions out of EWR signifies they can’t compete against and beat United because not a single route that is being “suspended” is a seasonal route. United operates these routes year around, JetBlue even operates those routes year around from JFK. Domestic air travel will have fully recovered by this coming summer, domestic air fares are holding steady, demand shows no signs of abating, so I’m not buying JetBlues excuse of high fuel prices, high airport operational cost, and whatever other excuses they’ve given as reasons for suspending these routes. When looking at all the routes JetBlue launched from EWR May 2020 through October of 2021, what is noticeable is ever since runway construction ended JetBlue has been slowly reducing their overall schedule out of EWR, they are struggling to compete against United which by the way has over 61% of all traffic at EWR and rising, while JetBlue has around 12% of all EWR traffic a number that has been falling with the reduction of flights.
Keep flying those airlines ladies and gentlemen. JetBlue is strong and a real force to be reckoned with. Squeeze yourself in those tiny seats on the other airlines and get your half poured soda and that smashed bag of pretzel dust. I know JetBlue has its challenges and to say it’s due to staffing is nothing but the truth. Maybe the company needs to reevaluate how they treat their employees and see how much stronger they become. Lastly the next time you treat a crew member with disrespect for just doing their job think about if the script was flipped and those crewmembers came on your job acting like total morons. Grow up and enjoy the ride yawl.!!