Subscribe to Point Me Awake, a morning jolt of the top stories in travel every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday — straight to your inbox. Our curated list includes deals, reviews, and the best ways to use points and miles.
There has been much speculation that JetBlue is expanding their route network to Europe, and Skift even calls this the worst-kept secret, that JetBlue is expanding to Europe.
The JetBlue All Hands event just wrapped up, and covered JetBlue’s strategies moving forward, as well as some passenger-facing changes on the way. However, there was one particular official announcement that is arguably the most exciting for most people: JetBlue will, indeed, start flying to Europe, with London slated as the first destination.
JetBlue Transatlantic Leaks and Hints
Let’s take a walk down memory lane for a bit.
Serious hints from JetBlue itself started appearing in late 2018, when an internal video showed a traveler using the JetBlue mobile app to search for flights to London-Heathrow. Earlier this year, JetBlue sent out invitations to employees for an “All Hands” event in New York City. The background of the invitation conveniently resembles the moquette pattern of seats in the London Underground.
JetBlue’s All Hands event invitation. Source: NYCAviation/Twitter
London underground seat moquette pattern. Source: Transport for London
Earlier today, JetBlue tweeted a seemingly cryptic message: “Blue has always been our favourite colour and we’ll never apologise for that.” The British English spellings all but confirms that JetBlue will soon be launching flights to the UK.
Blue has always been our favourite colour and we’ll never apologise for that.
— JetBlue (@JetBlue) April 10, 2019
Later in the day, a baker uploaded a picture to Instagram, showing a cake commissioned by JetBlue. This was the first indication that JetBlue may also be launching flights to Paris. This is not the first time delicious treats have given away “secrets” for airlines…
JetBlue is Flying To Europe in 2021
JetBlue will be launching flights from Boston (BOS) and New York (JFK) to Europe. The routes will be operated by Airbus A321LR aircraft, which will be converted from an existing order for 13 A321neo aircraft.
London is slated to be the first destination, with daily flights launching in 2021 from Boston (BOS) and New York (JFK). The airline has not yet said which airport in London they are flying to. London Heathrow (LHR) is slot controlled, but if JetBlue somehow manages to secure a slot, that would likely bring true disruption to the market.
JetBlue is launching flights to London in 2021. Source: JetBlue
Per report from the event, it appears that JetBlue is also planning on launching flights to Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid, and Lisbon.
During the event, JetBlue COO and President Joanna Geraghty also said that they understand JetBlue Mint is in need of a refresh. It seems that the refresh would come just in time for these Europe flights. Seth Miller at Paxex.aero predicts that the new JetBlue Mint seats will resemble VantageSolo seats from Thompson Aero. Unfortunately, the airline is not revealing the “reimagined” version of Mint seats just yet.
The Upshot
JetBlue today confirmed what we basically already knew, that the airline will be starting service from New York and Boston to Europe. The rollout will start with daily flights to London in 2021.
However, there is still a lot of unknowns. Which airport in London is JetBlue flying too? What will the onboard service look like? What does a “reimagined” Mint product entail? How much lower will the fares be compared to legacy airlines in the transatlantic market?
There is no denying that JetBlue’s entry to a market generally lowers fares (or elevate the experience) for everyone. The airline is known for its customer-friendly culture, and I hope this will remain as JetBlue enters the transatlantic market. However, today’s “announcement” was sort of a disappointment (if anything, the cake tells us more than the press release); we didn’t find out much more than what we already knew. I guess we will have to keep our eyes peeled!
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
4 comments
does jet blue fly to spain from florida
Judy-
No, JetBlue does not fly to Spain, although they have announced plans to fly to the United Kingdom. They do, however, fly to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. You might want to check out Caribbean reopenings here.
[…] it won’t be 2021 until JetBlue starts flights to Europe, the airline just took delivery of the shorter range version of the plane that will end up […]
[…] months and months, JetBlue teased their new transatlantic service which the airline finally announced to the world this past April. With the announcement, we now know for certain that JetBlue plans to start service […]