JetBlue Plans For Growth, Takes Steps To ‘Deepen’ Fort Lauderdale Presence

JetBlue Airways is plotting a return to growth, on improving engine constraints and expected aircraft deliveries.

The carrier is currently working its way through a multi-year plan dubbed JetForward, focused on boosting revenues and cutting costs. Several initiatives are ongoing and ramping into next year, such as a continued rollout of its Blue Sky partnership with United Airlines, installations of a new domestic first class, and its upcoming launch of airport lounges in New York and Boston. Network changes also will continue to ramp up moving into 2026, including expansions into Fort Lauderdale.

“We’re returning to growth next year,” CEO Joanna Geraghty said on an Oct. 28 third quarter earnings call. “That’s going to be a nice tailwind for JetBlue, buttressing our cost control.”

Building on observations from last quarter, executives described improvements to geared turbofan (GTF) challenges. At the start of the year, JetBlue projected related aircraft on the ground (AOGs) in 2025 would be in the mid- to high teens but now expects to average nine. It has six AOGs today and forecasts that figure to fall to the low- to mid-single digits in 2026.

Looking to the year ahead, “We plan to grow capacity through new aircraft deliveries, as well as the return of a sizable number of parked aircraft to service,” CFO Ursula Hurley said. “As we get back to growing once again, we’re doing so with our balance sheet in mind—by adding capacity despite reducing capex.”

Before year’s end, JetBlue is contracted to take delivery of six Airbus A220s, while expecting another 16 in 2026. Two A321XLRs being delivered in the fourth and first quarter have already been contracted to sell following their delivery, an arrangement JetBlue disclosed this summer. As of Sept. 30, JetBlue had an all-Airbus operating fleet of 283 aircraft, having retired its remaining Embraer E190s from service in September. The fleet transition is “allowing us to take full advantage of additional network opportunities from our East Coast-focused cities,” said Geraghty, pointing to cost efficiencies and a more customer-friendly onboard offering. “Along those lines ... we are taking deliberate steps to deepen our presence in Fort Lauderdale.”

JetBlue’s expansion into South Florida largely begins in the fourth quarter and comes as budget rival Spirit Airlines pulls back amidst its latest restructuring process. In 2025, JetBlue plans to launch 17 new routes to Fort Lauderdale and add additional frequencies on another 12. The carrier described its expansion as strategic, and a long time coming.

“Frankly, we have been hamstrung in Fort Lauderdale because of our lack of access to international gates in the middle of the day,” JetBlue President Marty St. George said. As its rival Spirit announced significant pull downs, “we have seen a lot of opportunity to move flights into that customs facility,” at more convenient times, he said. “I use the word generational about this,” St. George said of the opportunity. “Our ability to get such significant growth for international services in such an important market for us is something we’re absolutely going to take advantage of.”

When coupled with a step up in domestic competitive capacity, the carrier forecasts its investment will create a short-term headwind, of just over a point of impact to RASM in the fourth quarter.

“We perform very well in Fort Lauderdale today,” noted St. George. Nodding to its premium Mint offering, he added, “We compete very well against our competitor, which is probably one of the reasons why they’re going through the restructuring they’re going through—and we’re very bullish on Fort Lauderdale.”

Meanwhile, investments in premium continue, and JetBlue remains on track to launch domestic first class in 2026, with the first equipped aircraft expected to begin flying in the second half of the year. Roughly 25% of the retrofits are slated to be finished by the end of 2026, with the vast majority of its non-Mint aircraft expected to be complete by the end of 2027. As premium continues to outperform the main cabin, JetBlue expects its addition of the new class will provide a competitive boost.  

“In general, the thing that gets me most excited about improving our domestic RASM is the continued introduction of premium products,” St. George said. “The challenge is that we’re missing that whole front of the airplane, which is a pretty good revenue kick to our competitors ... We see a lot of upside for the premium products that we’re adding, as far as getting us up to where the legacies are, or close to where the legacies are.”

For the third quarter, JetBlue reported total operating revenues of $2.3 billion, down 1.8% year-over-year, on a 0.8% uptick in operating expenses. The carrier recorded a net loss of $143 million, more than double its net loss of $60 million recorded in the third quarter pf 2024. Looking ahead, it expects fourth quarter available seat miles (ASMs) to be in the range of down 0.75% to up 2.25% year-over-year, projecting RASM to be flat to down 4%. For the full year 2025, it projects ASMs to be flat to down 2%.

JetBlue’s initial 2026 planning assumptions include low- to mid-single digit capacity growth.  

“We’ve built a strong foundation with JetForward, and we are on track to generate a cumulative $290 million of incremental EBIT this year,” Geraghty said. “Our efforts to boost reliability, recalibrate our network, enhance our products and services, supercharge our loyalty program and execute on cost have fueled transformational change.”

Forward-looking forecasts do not yet account for the impacts of Hurricane Melissa on JetBlue’s operations in Jamaica, where the category five storm made landfall on Oct. 28. Jamaica represents about 2.6% of JetBlue’s scheduled capacity in the fourth quarter.