JetBlue has flipped the switch on three new daily nonstop routes, all launching on November 2 and all flown on Airbus A320s. Two connect Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International with Indianapolis — a brand-new city for the airline — and Columbus, which JetBlue is rejoining after a break. The third links Baltimore/Washington International with San Juan, Puerto Rico, deepening the carrier's Caribbean network.
The bigger story is where these flights come from. Fort Lauderdale has quietly overtaken New York JFK as JetBlue's busiest airport, with roughly 133 average daily departures this winter against JFK's 127. Boston sits third at 119, with Orlando and San Juan further back. JetBlue's share of scheduled seats at Fort Lauderdale is expected to hit around 37% in the fourth quarter, up 14 percentage points year-over-year, and peak daily departures will top 150.
A big driver of the shift is the collapse of Spirit Airlines, which has left room in South Florida for JetBlue to pounce. The airline has added 15 destinations from Fort Lauderdale while boosting frequencies on existing routes, and the growth is paying off: third-quarter revenue per available seat mile there rose nearly 15% even as capacity jumped more than 65%. Co-branded credit card sign-ups in the region are up 55%.
CEO Joanna Geraghty framed the moves as building on a strong base, with JetBlue positioning itself as Fort Lauderdale's leading airline and adding connections for customers on both ends of the routes. Baltimore officials have also welcomed the added competition, which should help fares on the Maryland-to-Puerto Rico corridor.
There's more coming this month, and it's a different flavour of expansion. On November 19, JetBlue starts daily Fort Lauderdale–San Diego flights with its Mint business class — fully lie-flat seating that neither Southwest nor Alaska offers on the route. Mint-equipped flights to Los Angeles and San Francisco follow this winter, part of a plan for up to eight daily LA flights and three to San Francisco (some without Mint). It's JetBlue's largest-ever Mint schedule from the airport.
For travellers, the practical upshot: midwestern flyers from Indianapolis and Columbus get a fresh one-stop-free option into South Florida and onward to the Caribbean, Baltimore gains a nonstop to San Juan, and anyone flying Fort Lauderdale to the West Coast this winter can now book a lie-flat seat without paying legacy-carrier prices. If you've been pricing trips to Puerto Rico or South Florida, the new competition makes this a good moment to compare fares.
