JetBlue Doesn’t Expect Puerto Rico Tourism to Recover Until Late 2018
Photo Credit: With Puerto Rico reeling, JetBlue has flown many relief flights to the island, with planes filled with supplies. But the airline is making plans to cut some flights to Puerto Rico, since it has little infrastructure for tourists. JetBlue Airways
Skift Take
JetBlue has been good to Puerto Rico, but the airline has no choice. The island has been devastated by Hurricane Maria, and tourists won't be able to return soon. JetBlue needs to move some flights to other popular tourist destinations.
After American Airlines started withdrawing from its San Juan, Puerto Rico hub about nine years ago, JetBlue Airways saw an opportunity, calculating it could make profits in a market abanonded by a legacy airline with higher costs.
For JetBlue, it has been a successful strategy, and in recent years, the airline has been flying about 50 daily flights from the island, the majority of them from San Juan. Puerto Rico has accounted for about 6 to 7 percent of JetBlue's total capacity.
It's the largest airline in Puerto Rico, supplanting American, which as recently as 2008 operated more than 90 flights, about half on turboprops flying within the Caribbean. Unlike American's old hub, JetBlue has focused on taking travelers from larger cities, such as Boston and New York, to Puerto Rico, rather than using San Juan as a connecting hub for the rest of the Caribbean.
But Hurricane
