JetBlue is making an enormous bet on Fort Lauderdale. The airline just announced its largest ever schedule at FLL with 11 brand new destinations and plans to hit 150 daily departures. For anyone who flies out of South Florida, this changes the game.
What's new
The airline launched nonstop daily service from Fort Lauderdale to Baltimore, Charlotte, Cleveland, Nashville, Detroit, Houston, Chicago, and Ponce, Puerto Rico earlier this month. And they're not done. Indianapolis, San Diego, Columbus, and three new Latin American routes (Cali, Barranquilla, and Caracas) are coming this fall.
On top of new cities, JetBlue is beefing up frequency on routes they already fly. More daily flights to Austin, Raleigh Durham, Santo Domingo, and Aguadilla in Puerto Rico. If you've been watching these routes and the schedules didn't work for you before, they might now.
Why this matters for deal hunters
More flights equals more competition equals lower fares. When JetBlue grows at an airport, they put pressure on Spirit (who also hubs at FLL) and every other carrier. We're already seeing prices drop on overlapping routes. Nashville from FLL was running $180+ before JetBlue announced, and now you can find it for under $100 pretty regularly.
The Latin American additions are interesting too. Cali and Barranquilla aren't served by many carriers from Florida, so these could be priced competitively to attract passengers to a new route.
The Spirit connection
This expansion partly fills the gap left by Spirit Airlines' reduced schedule. JetBlue is even offering a status match to former Spirit frequent flyers, which tells you exactly who they're targeting. If you used to rely on Spirit out of FLL and have been frustrated with their recent cutbacks, JetBlue is positioning itself as your replacement with slightly better service at fares that aren't dramatically higher.
Our take
Any time a carrier grows this aggressively at one of our airports, deals follow. We're monitoring all 11 new routes closely. When JetBlue does fare sales (and they will, launching this many routes means they need to fill planes), Early Bird Air members will be the first to know.
Set FLL as your home airport if you haven't already. The deal flow from Fort Lauderdale is about to get a lot more interesting.