US carrier JetBlue is growing its presence at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) with plans to operate an average of 140 daily flights in the winter in the coming years. The expansion will result in roughly 75 percent growth from the carrier’s current size at its South Florida focus city.
As part of JetBlue’s ongoing expansion the airline is adding a new non-stop service to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and increasing the number of flights to Nassau, Bahamas, using Lynden Pindling International Airport.
The airline will now operate non-stop flights to 46 destinations from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, although an executive confirmed to Routesonline during the recent Routes Americas air service development forum in San Juan, Puerto Rico that more flights and new non-stop destinations are set to be announced later this year.
“We are absolutely thrilled to announce the next phase of our growth at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport,” said Marty St George, executive vice president commercial and planning at JetBlue. “JetBlue is the number one airline in Fort Lauderdale not only because of our size, but also because we deliver the very best experience to our customers with our award-winning service and style.”
JetBlue last year handled more than five million customers in Fort Lauderdale and its added service comes as it continues to upgrade its home at Terminal 3. The airline recently unveiled its interactive customer check-in experience and also plans to link Terminals 3 and 4 for seamless international connections.
The new Fort Lauderdale - New Orleans will operate daily starting September 29, 2016 and will be operated using an Airbus A320. This new route will not only create a new nonstop link between South Florida and The Big Easy, but will also provide connections to JetBlue’s sizeable Caribbean and Latin America Network from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood. The airline has recently launched or announced new flights between its South Florida focus city and top destinations such as Turks & Caicos, Quito, Ecuador and Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.
Two new round-trip flights between Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and Nassau will begin operating daily starting August 1, 2016. JetBlue will now offer five daily non-stop flights to the popular vacation destination. Less than an hour flight from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, Nassau is known for its beaches, blue water, coral reefs and world-class resorts. This frequent link is being flown using an Embraer 190.
JetBlue has more than doubled its activities from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International over the past ten years and has grown capacity 78.3 per cent since the start of the decade, an average annual rise of 15.7 per cent. Its departure capacity was up 15.1 percent last year as Albany, Baltimore, Charleston, Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Providenciales were all added as new destinations. This calendar year it has or is schedule to also add flights to Aguadilla, Barbados, Minneapolis/St Paul, Nashville, Quito, San Diego and Syracuse, according to intelligence provider, OAG.
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