With the aviation industry short thousands of pilots, air traffic controllers and flight attendants, airlines are planning routes carefully in order to maximize the number of people on each flight and make sure routes that are not that popular are not a resource drain.
In September, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) even agreed to extend the lower numbers of flights required to fly out of New York and Washington, D.C. until October 2024 to help airlines that are not able to meet those goals due to pilot shortages.
Related: The government just stepped in to help airlines amid staffing crisis
As a result, airlines are cutting certain routes in and out of those cities. New York-based JetBlue Airways JBLU just announced that it is cutting 14 routes primarily out of New York and Boston.
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These are the routes that are getting cut in early 2024
As first reported by travel website the Points Guy, the airline’s route from Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) to Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport (ROC) in upstate New York are getting axed by Jan. 3.
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Some of the other routes to get cut include Newark to Miami International Airport (MIA), JFK to Vermont’s Burlington International Airport (BTV) and JFK to D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) — the latter is closer to the city than Dulles.
Routes from New York’s LaGuardia (LGA) to Nashville, Charleston, Jacksonville, Maine’s Portland, Cape Cod in Massachusetts, California’s Sarasota and L.F. Wade International Airport in Bermuda are also getting cut. Some of these are getting cut in January 2024 while others will get the axe a few weeks later in March.
‘Exiting a market is a difficult decision,’ says JetBlue
On the West Coast, a flight between Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Charleston International Airport (CHS) is also getting the cut but the market that’s hit the hardest is Burlington — after the JFK-BTV goes, JetBlue will no longer be serving the city.
“Given ongoing air traffic control staffing challenges and the resulting slot waiver for airlines to reduce congestion in New York airspace, and as we return slots to American Airlines as we unwind the Northeast Alliance, we are suspending a number of routes in JFK,” the airline said in a statement on the cuts. “[…] Exiting a market is a difficult decision, however we expect the current air traffic controller shortage to last for some time and do not see a path to feasibly bringing back this flight.”
Both the residents of Burlington and the airport’s Director of Aviation Nic Longo expressed dismay at the decision as the city of nearly 50,000 is a fair drive from both New York and Boston and depends on these short routes to transfer residents to farther-away places. On the other hand, JetBlue’s decision to cut the flight is an opportunity for its competitors.
“Our relationship with JetBlue goes back more than two decades and the airline averaged 10% of Leahy BTV passengers on a monthly basis,” Longo said. “Passengers will still be able to fly from Burlington to New York-JFK via Delta Air Lines, and we will work with our partners United UAL, American Airlines AAL and Delta Air Lines DAL to expand services with this opportunity opening up.”
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