Skift Global Forum Preview: JetBlue Looks for New Opportunities Beyond the Northeast and Florida
Photo Credit: JetBlue President Joanna Geraghty will speak at the Skift Global Forum. Pictured is one of the airline's Embraer E190s. Flickr / David Montiverdi
Skift Take
Many U.S. airlines will change after the pandemic. But JetBlue may alter its strategy even more than most. Expect JetBlue to continue to use this crisis to gain more of a nationwide footprint.
JetBlue Airways executives had planned to spend much of this year fighting for airport access in Europe, where the airline wants to expand. Instead, they have been fighting for survival.
On the surface, the airline should be insulated from some of the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic. JetBlue is a leisure airline, and most of its business comes in the domestic market, so it does not face the same pressures as, say, United Airlines, which made its profits flying business customers to Europe and Asia.
But JetBlue is based in New York City, and it has a robust focus city at John F. Kennedy International Airport. In the spring, the city faced a massive Covid-19 outbreak, and while health conditions have improved, many airlines report air travel demand in the New York region remains depressed.
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To compensate, JetBlue has been hunting for new markets,
