JetBlue and American Airlines have announced yet another round of their massive international and domestic expansion.
JetBlue is adding 7 new destinations in New York and Boston and tripling its presence at New York’s LaGuardia Airport while American Airlines has announced new international flights including to India. Let’s dive into the details.
American Airlines to India
On Wednesday, American announced its newest international route, to New Delhi, the capital of India. Starting 31st October 2021, the carrier will fly 3-times-a-week to New Delhi from New York-JFK. The route will operate daily during the peak holiday period from 17th November 2021 to 3rd January 2022.
The airline will deploy its 273-seater Boeing B777-200ER on this 7,318 mile route featuring 37 business class seats, 24 premium economy seats and 212 economy class seats.
American will compete on this route will Air India which flies JFK-Delhi route and United which flies Newark-Delhi route. This flight will run in addition to the already announced Seattle to Bengaluru service.
American used to fly between Chicago and Delhi until March 2012 but it has remained absent in the Indian market since then.
New Delhi joins 4 other new routes announced by American from New York-JFK, including Athens from 3rd June, Tel Aviv from 6th May and Santiago and Rio-de-Janeiro starting in the coming months.
Related: Delta airlines unveils 39 new and expanded routes to over 20 destinations
American’s domestic expansion
The airline will add 6 new domestic flights, 3 from Boston and 3 from New York’s LaGuardia airport.
From Boston, American will add flights to:
- Cincinnati
- Toronto
- St. Louis
and from LaGuardia airport, the carrier will add flights to:
- Houston
- Oklahoma City
- Omaha in Nebraska
All of these domestic flights will start from 2nd November. Most will be operated by American Eagle affiliate Republic Airways on the Embraer 175 Regional Jet. American will fly the LaGuardia-Houston and Boston-St. Louis routes using its 128-seater Airbus A319.
Additionally, American will be improving its signature transcontinental routes. American will now start offering its swanky 102-seater Airbus A321T, utilized on flagship transcontinental routes from New York-JFK to San Francisco and Los Angeles, on all flights between Boston and Los Angeles. This is in line with American seeking to offer a more premium service in these markets and moving away from 50-seater jets in New York.
Vasu Raja, Chief Revenue Officer, American Airlines, said:
Our global partnerships are designed to grow our network to benefit our customers, team members, and investors. Since the inception of our partnership with JetBlue, we have committed to offering customers more flights, more destinations and a better experience when traveling. We’re proud to deliver on those promises for our customers, not just in the Northeast, but throughout the entire American Airlines network, who now have greater access to the world.
Related: American Airlines announces 17 new routes including 8 from Orlando
JetBlue’s domestic and international expansion
Thanks to the partnership with American Airlines, JetBlue will start flights to Canada and Honduras for the 1st time later this year. JetBlue is adding 7 new cities, 2 new countries and 17 new routes.
Related: United airlines announces flights to Croatia, Iceland and Greece
JetBlue will add the following routes:
- From San Antonio to Boston and New York-JFK in October 2021
- From San Pedro Sula, Honduras to New York-JFK in December 2021
- From Puerto Vallarta to New York-JFK in the 1st quarter of 2022
- From Kansas City to Boston and New York-JFK in 2nd quarter of 2022
- From Milwaukee to Boston and New York-JFK in 2nd quarter of 2022
- From Vancouver to Boston (Seasonal) and New York-JFK in summer 2022
- From Asheville to Boston (Seasonal) in summer 2022
Meanwhile, JetBlue is growing at LaGuardia. In summer 2022, it will offer more than 50 daily departures with up to 15 roundtrips between Boston and LGA each day. The airline will also beef up schedules to Charleston, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, West Palm Beach, Fort Myers, and Tampa out of LaGuardia.
Related: United announces 29 new point-to-point routes; resumes international routes
The airline will start 6 new routes out of LaGuardia airport that include:
- Jacksonville in October 2021
- Sarasota-Bradenton in October 2021
- Savannah in October 2021
- New Orleans in 1st quarter of 2022
- Nashville in 2nd quarter of 2022
- Portland in summer 2022
Many of the launch details for the new routes, such as frequency, aircraft type and commencement date, remain up in the air, but JetBlue promises more information in the coming months.
Related: Southwest Airlines announces major Summer expansion with 36 new routes
Scott Laurence, Head of Revenue and Planning, JetBlue, said:
Almost since day one, both our customers and crewmembers have been asking us to add flights to the middle of the country and into Canada.
Improved connectivity experience at JFK
Both the airlines will launch an airside bus running between JetBlue’s Terminal 5 and American’s Terminal 8 at JFK this summer.
Featured image by The Points Guy
What do you think of JetBlue and American’s expansion? Which of the new routes are you most excited to fly? Let me know in the comments section below.
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