JetBlue Airways announced on Wednesday another surge of flights it expects to offer starting this winter at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, saying it intends to offer up to 113 departures daily during “peak” flying periods.
The new service to nine locations, which will launch from Fort Lauderdale in November and December, focuses mainly on nonstop flights to Caribbean and Latin American cities, with Cali, Colombia, appearing for the first time on the airline’s timetables. There will be two domestic additions: New Orleans and Pittsburgh.
The new cities to be served year-round from Fort Lauderdale are:
International:
Aruba: Dec. 4 — three times weekly.
Cali, Colombia: Start date and frequencies to be announced.
Cartagena, Colombia: Dec. 4 — four times weekly
Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands: Dec. 4 — three times weekly.
Liberia, Costa Rica: Dec. 4 — once a day.
San Pedro Sula, Honduras: Dec. 4 — four times weekly.
St. Maarten: Dec. 4 — four times weekly.
More flights will be added to these existing international destinations: Cancún, Mexico; Kingston, Jamaica; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; San José, Costa Rica; and Santiago, Dominican Republic.
Domestic:
New Orleans: Nov. 1 — twice a day.
Pittsburgh: Nov. 1 — once a day.
More flights also will be added to the following U.S. mainland and territorial destinations: Atlanta, Boston, Hartford, Conn., and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
To “celebrate” the anticipated 113 peak daily flights from Fort Lauderdale, the New York-based airline said it will offer fares starting at $113 or less from the Broward County airport to any of 46 nonstop destinations JetBlue will serve this fall
The fattened schedule comes in the wake of a round of additions to U.S. cities announced in July. In April, the carrier listed new flights to Philadelphia and to Guayaquil, Ecuador.
“As the top airline in Fort Lauderdale, with more departures than any other carrier on peak travel days, JetBlue is proud to keep raising the bar for customers in South Florida and to continue bringing them to the places they want to go,” said Dave Jehn, JetBlue’s vice president, network planning and airline partnerships, in a statement.
“We are truly excited and welcome this expansion with open arms,” said Mark E. Gale, the CEO/Director of Aviation at the airport. “With the addition of seven international and two domestic routes from FLL, this gives South Floridians more convenient and cost-effective ways to visit and enjoy these cities, whether traveling for business or leisure.”
Declining passenger traffic
The additions come at an opportune time for the airport, which is losing EL AL Israel next year and has seen Silver Airways, the regional carrier that served Florida and the Bahamas, go out of business.
In step with an industrywide trend, traffic generated by most of the airlines using Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood has sagged year-over-year through July, with the number of passengers falling by 10.9% to 19.4 million.
Besides JetBlue, United, Frontier and Allegiant (whose airport traffic has risen 33%) have added flights at Fort Lauderdale and elsewhere in Florida as Spirit Airlines, which is headquartered in Dania Beach and recently returned to Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, downsizes in a bid to become profitable.
As of July, JetBlue remained in second place behind Spirit in the number of passengers carried. Spirit says it operates102 “peak” daily departures at Fort Lauderdale
“JetBlue remained the No. 2 airline at FLL for overall passenger traffic this year with 19.5% of market share behind Spirit’s, 28.1%” said Arlene Satchell, spokesperson for the Broward County Aviation Department.
Spirit’s year-over-year traffic through July was off 19% to 5.45 million passengers while JetBlue was down 7.2% with 3.8 million travelers served.
Asked to respond to JetBlue’s moves, Spirit said it remains strongly committed to Fort Lauderdale.
“We are proud to be South Florida’s hometown airline,” the company said in a statement. “No other carrier is as committed to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) as we are. While we are still finalizing our winter schedule, we are currently offering up to 102 peak day departures from FLL to more than 60 destinations. With our low fares, new premium options and reliable operation, we are confident in our position at FLL and that Guests will continue to select us for a great travel experience at an unparalleled value year-round.”
