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When the Obama administration relaxed the rules on travel to/from Cuba there was an almighty crush by the US airlines as each tried to get the rights to fly to the Caribbean island.
At the time, a number of people commented that the schedules the US airlines were pulling together were overly ambitious and that the demand for travel between the US and Cuba was being overestimated….but the airlines didn’t really listen.
It turns out they should have listened.
Over the past year (possibly longer) the US airlines have been cutting the services they offer to Cuba bit by bit. American Airlines led the way with cuts but Spirit, Frontier, Silver Airways and even JetBlue all followed suit pretty quickly.
In JetBlue’s case the airline didn’t actually cut frequencies or routes (as the other airlines did) but it did reduce capacity by downsizing the aircraft it operates on routes to Cuba.
Now, however, something appears to have changed as JetBlue has recently announced that it’s “expanding and diversifying its flying schedule in Havana” by adding a new service out of Boston and more flights out of Ft. Lauderdale.
JetBlue’s VP for network planning had this to say about the announcement:
“As the first airline to operate commercial service between the U.S. and Cuba, we are proud to celebrate another first as the only carrier to serve Havana from Boston while also growing our successful service in Fort Lauderdale”
“[Going forward] JetBlue will operate more than 50 weekly flights between the U.S. and Cuba from every one of our east coast focus cities.”
JetBlue’s New Boston – Havana Route
From 10 November 2018 JetBlue will operate a once weekly service between Boston and Havana on the following schedule:
B6 867 BOS 12:30 – 16:30 HAV (Sat)
B6 868 HAV 17:30 – 21:14 BOS (Sat)
The new route will be operates by the airline’s Airbus A320 aircraft offering 42 “even more space” seats (38″ of legroom) and 108 regular Economy Class seats (34″ of legroom).
JetBlue is currently offering an introductory fare of $129 on this route.
JetBlue Expands South Florida – Havana Service
JetBlue is adding an additional flight between Ft Lauderdale and Havana from 4 November 2018.
Here’s what the full schedule will look like:
B6 799 FLL 07:24 – 08:45 HAV (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri & Sun)
B6 1499 FLL 12:20 – 13:45 HAV (Daily)
B6 1899 FLL 15:08 – 16:30 HAV (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri & Sun) **New**
B6 800 HAV 10:00 – 11:16 FLL (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri & Sun)
B6 1500 HAV 15:00 – 16:16 FLL (Daily)
B6 1900 HAV 17:30 – 18:43 FLL (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri & Sun) **New**
Bottom Line
If you can’t make flights between South Florida and Havana work for you then you should probably just give up on being an airline and go home (so that explains why JetBlue is happy to add more service out of Ft. Lauderdale)…..but the reasoning for the Boston route is different.
JetBlue says that it has sought a nonstop route between Boston and Havana since first applying for commercial service to Cuba in 2016 and, with Boston being home to “over 120 institutions of higher education and more university students per capita than most other cities in the world“, JetBlue clearly feels there’s a market for its new route.
I’m not so sure but then, as I’m not a route planner for JetBlue, I don’t have the facts and figures that the airline presumably does.
Perhaps a lot of students really want to visit Havana and maybe a lot of the healthcare/biotech firms in the Boston area have an urge to travel to/from Havana on a reasonably frequent basis too….but I’m sceptical.
Only time will tell if JetBlue’s gamble will pay off but, considering the administration currently in office and its feelings towards US-Cuban relations, I have a sneaking suspicion the Boston – Havana route won’t be as big of a hit as JetBlue hopes it will be.
Featured image: Pedo Szekely via Flickr
