While demand for air travel is reaching new post-pandemic highs, a shortage of pilots and other airline and airport staff means that airlines have to make major decisions on which routes to run.
In February 2023, American Airlines (AAL) axed more than 50,000 flights from its summer schedule. The Chicago O'Hare airport hub was the heaviest hit but a few months later the airline also cut routes between Seattle and London after the summer season.
DON'T MISS: American Airlines Is Cutting Long Haul Flights to These Airports
Competitor Delta (DAL) also cut a number of flights between German cities and New York and Atlanta, while expanding some service into London's Gatwick Airport.
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Here's Why JetBlue Has Its Sights Set On Puerto Rico
A low-cost airline based out of New York, JetBlue (JBLU), has had a long-standing rivalry with Denver-based Frontier (FRON) .
After a merger between Frontier and Miramar, Florida-based Spirit Airlines (SAVE) fell through in the summer of 2023, JetBlue swept in with plans to buy Spirit for $3.8 billion and become the fifth-largest carrier in the country.
While the move is currently being challenged on antitrust grounds by the U.S. Department of Justice, JetBlue and Frontier are both trying to carve out a space in certain key markets.
On April 23, JetBlue announced that it is launching new nonstop routes between Puerto Rico and two mainland cities — the year-round flights between San Juan and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina and Tampa, Florida and Aguadilla will debut on July 5.
"This growth will increase competition and choice for customers traveling to and from Puerto Rico and for travelers in Raleigh and Tampa, while also building on our commitment to support tourism on the island and connect family and friends," JetBlue chief executive Robin Hayes said in a press statement.
The JetBlue/Spirit Competition Has Just Gotten Much Hotter
JetBlue had been running the flight between San Juan and Raleigh-Durham several times a week since November 2020 but ended up axing it in January 2022 before bringing it back again.
Spirit also has a strong presence in Puerto Rico and, last February, expanded the cities it operates in from 11 to 16 — new routes include flights between San Juan's Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport and Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth and Hartford.
Frontier, too, runs a number of Puerto Rico flights and had added eight new routes to the U.S. island territory two weeks prior to Spirit. Targeting airports underserved by JetBlue and Spirit, it launched new flights out of cities like Detroit, Cleveland and Balitmore.
"Puerto Rico is a hugely popular destination for leisure travelers as well as the large population of Puerto Ricans residing in the US who enjoy returning to the island to visit friends and family," Daniel Shurz, Frontier's SVP of Commercial, said in a statement at the time.
In an effort to promote the new routes, both airlines offered some of the flights for as long as $59. But while the island territory is a popular destination both among sun-seeking tourists and those who leave to work on the mainland, several analysts questioned whether demand for the island with 3.3 million residents is actually high enough to justify all these new routes.
"As with most Frontier efforts, I imagine some routes will work and others will not," Brett Snyder, of the industry watch blog Cranky Flier, writes. "But this does help Frontier position itself to easily swoop in and start taking traffic away from Spirit if it becomes JetBlue and fares rise."
