The money-losing, mid-range carrier will maintain its presence in Fort Lauderdale as it recalibrates routes
Photo Jakub Porzycki (Getty)
JetBlue is suspending all service to and from Miami starting Sept. 3. It will maintain a Florida presence in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. At the latter, it served 6.8 million passengers in 2024, despite cutting back flights there in March 2024, when its protracted attempt to merge with Spirit Airlines was squashed by federal regulators.
Spirit Airlines is the dominant carrier at Fort Lauderdale; JetBlue is No. 2. Spirit declared bankruptcy in November 2024, but emerged from Chapter 11 with financial restructuring in March.
JetBlue announced the Miami news to employees on Friday, in a memo leaked to AirlineGeeks.com. The memo cited the collapse of JetBlue’s partnership with American Airlines as a primary reason.
Currently, JetBlue only has one or two flights a day between Boston and Miami. Customers who have booked a Miami flight after Sept. 3 will be offered a refund or a ticket to Fort Lauderdale or West Palm Beach.
JetBlue had expanded to 14 daily flights to Miami in 2021, betting on pent-up, post-pandemic demand for travel to a state with loose Covid regulations. The airline began scaling back when demand was less than anticipated, with further cutbacks in the wake of the failed Spirit merger.
Beyond Florida, JetBlue plans seasonal cuts to its Caribbean destinations. Also on ice is a new route between New York and New Hampshire, and service to Grenada. Service between Boston and Seattle will not run during the winter.
The mid-range airline still plans to move ahead with offering premium experiences on high-demand flights to attract more business travelers.
On June 24, JetBlue signaled these cuts, saying it didn’t expect to turn a profit in 2025—again, for the sixth year in a row. CEO Joanna Geraghty told staff that “even a recovery won’t fully offset the ground we’ve lost this year and our path back to profitability will take longer than we’d hoped. That means we’re still relying on borrowed cash to keep the airline running.”
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