JetBlue hasn’t been profitable for a full year since 2019. They have a turnaround plan that involves pivoting away from business travelers, downsizing the airline, and cutting costs. They’ve dropped numerous routes and entire cities from their route map. But it – and expected upside from their planned United partnership – isn’t enough.
CEO Joanna Geraghty sent a memo to employees this week laying out plans for further cuts.
- Reduced flying during low demand periods, like on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and flying fewer flights in some markets.
- Dropping unprofitable routs.
- Parking 4 Airbus A320s in the desert.
- Laying off some of the airline’s leadership.
- Across the board budget cuts.
- Ironically for an airline, reducing business travel.
Here’s a copy of the memo from aviation watchdog JonNYC.
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) June 17, 2025
We’re already seeing movement on the airline’s plan to cut more flying. They’re eliminating service to Miami and will only fly seasonally out of Seattle.
JetBlue appears to be suspending all Seattle (SEA) flights from end of October to end of April.
SEA-JFK was already suspended during this time but SEA-BOS has also been removed from sale.
— Ishrion Aviation (@IshrionA) June 20, 2025
JetBlue’s South Florida strength is in Fort Lauderdale. Miami is a very high cost airport, tough to generate a profit without high fares; doubly so with a leisure travel focus. American historically benefited from high costs because it kept low cost carriers away. Some have tried, but likely not profitably.
Meanwhle, Alaska and Delta will certainly be happy to see a competitor dropping off the Seattle – New York route. I wonder if this is what the Department of Justice had in mind when opposing JetBlue’s partnership with American and acquisition of Spirit? We’re getting less competition in the marketplace, even before JetBlue ties up with United and further concentrates New York.
Ha Ha Ha!
Time for jetBlue to shut down in an orderly manner, liquidate the assets and pay off the shareholders while there’s still some value left.
@ Gary — Soon UA will be first in line to buy JBLU on the cheap, while poor Timmy drowns in his tears.
Maybe David Neeleman would buy it back.
There was lots of arrogance from the pilots there in there early years. Stories of trash talking from them while the majors cut contracts, furloughed, and reduced service. Well I have to say to those JBLU people. How big a slice of humble pie can I get ya?
Time for United to purchase the new B6 A321LRs and A220s at the asset auction. What a shame…
JetBlue Airways, dba American Airlines. It’s coming. The B6/UA thing just isn’t going to happen. UA will walk away.
what a once wonderful airline like virgin America
If only they ran a good FF program but they didn’t
I really liked Mint too but the program and options sucked 🙁
Also no lounges.Who can they really appeal to?And now more than ever limited markets
Sad
Is this really a ‘jetBlue problem’ or more a ‘macroeconomic’ indicator? I’d say the latter. While I’m not pleased for the crews and workers that will inevitably be affected, I’m glad some in management may actually ‘take responsibility’ (some executives being ‘let go’), but still, again, first point, I don’t even think it’s really their fault. I like jetBlue, even in Economy, but especially in Mint. I hope they can weather this storm, because it’s nice to have them around. Like, please, let Southwest fail, keep B6.
@Creditian — David Neeleman? jetBlue founded and well-known Mormon? (It’s a niche callback to an earlier post of Gary’s where he oddly emphasized Neeleman’s Mornonism, and some here got needlessly offended, so I mocked them, because religion is a human construct, and people should lighten up.) Something, something… Xenu! Tom Cruise!
jetBlue’s (and particularly Neeleman’s) early successes can be partially attributed to the fact that:
1) Neeleman enters the airline industry (as a new airline) with a higher amount of capital than most, allowing him to buy new planes, which means…
2) maintenance costs are lower compared to competitors (the planes are under warranty, after all), while…
3) his labor costs are low (for example, by “Year 3” he’s only got Captains being paid on 2nd and 3rd year pay scales, compared to AA/DL/UA paying many Captains at their 12th year scale). He gets lower costs of labor in the early years even if the pay scales match.
Neeleman basically operates at a financial advantage for the early years, but it doesn’t last. All of his startups have been shining stars of the industry in their first decade, then the airline is either bought by someone else, or he bails before it gets mature. Either way, he makes bank. And the airline eventually becomes average or worse. After learning the ropes with Morris Air, that’s been the basic story of his with Westjet, jetBlue, Azul, and now Breeze.
Hopefully, UAL can absorb JBLU and salvage whatever value is left of the remaining assets – primarily aircraft and Idlewild (aka JFK) slots.
How long ago were the pilots wearing their “Ready to strike” and “Pilots aren’t free” (even though they’re already handsomely paid) lanyards? The flight attendants pull the same drum-banging bs about “bringing the company to it’s knees”. Good. Let the cards fall and layoffs happen.
@CHRIS — Nah, just fire much of the overpaid, lazy management, and pay those pilots and crew more.
Gene and others continue to have wet dreams that United’s strategic failures will be saved by JBLU’s strategic failures – but only because Gene and others can’t accept that UA is still neck in neck w/ DL for the top 2 positions in NYC which does include all 3 NYC airports. Based on the latest data, DL IS the largest airline in NYC – and THAT is why Gene and others are in such a state of panic.
It isn’t the DOJ’s problem to fix UA’s stupidity in leaving NYC.
If AA couldn’t do a deal w/ B6, UA certainly can’t.
The reality is that DL will continue to grow stronger using the assets DL ALREADY has from NYC and BOS.
Even in UA decided tomorrow that it would pursue an acquisition of B6, DL would have taken advantage of every opportunity to extend its leadership in the NYC market.
UA could have bought B6 with the loose change in the couch in the ORD pilot’s lounge, given the stock price, but why would United want to buy B6’s nearly $1 billion in debt?
JetBlue’s A220’s might do UA some good, but they’ll be able to get them at the bankruptcy auction.
@Tim Dunn — At least a ‘wet dream’ *might* feel good in the moment (while you sleep, not after waking up), yet, to follow this analogy, I doubt any of this subject ‘feels good,’ except the short-lived schadenfreude of a few overpaid executives being let go (instead of the usual culling of the underpaid workers.)
I recognize you’re more focused on the financials, and I’m often thinking of the pax experience. Personally, I think @Gene just enjoys the banter with you, on relevant and irrelevant topics, too, a few playful personal jabs as well, as do I with others on here.
In the end, it’d be nice to see B6 stick around, re-size, and continue keeping the competition on its feet. I’ll say, I think Delta has kept its IFE and food up because folks like B6 were challenging them. United’s always been hit and miss with this. Meanwhile, AA gave up on food and IFE altogether on most single-aisle aircraft.
They always tried to compete on these busy routes but failed to grow their midwest route map.
@1990, the US economy is headed for a long period of stagflation and an eventual Argentina-style economic meltdown. The country is on the brink of insolvency, now ruled by gangsters who are betting the farm on crypto, all while the economy is subjected to isolationism and protectionism to a level never seen before. Americans will soon be lining up for soup kitchens, 1930s style.
1990
yes, B6 keeps DL on its toes.
But DL focused on its network and its employees and has consistently delivered a higher quality product.
Nobody will succeed in trying to buy the scraps of B6 because DL is so far ahead in the markets where B6 used to matter
Tim Dunn: I haven’t followed the ups and downs of why JetBlue is now following in the. footsteps of Spirit. One only hears good things from passengers. With Spirit and Frontier being the bottom feeders with mean and nasty gate agents, equally nasty passengers, one never hears much about JetBlue having the high numbers of issues like the two above mentioned. In a nutshell, where and why did JetBlue start to come off of the rails (yeah there’s a pun there but…)? It’s also interesting that one rarely hears bad things about Allegiant except that they pay their new pilots less than a new pilot on a regional carrier.
Robin Hayes who bailed or was pushed out is now at the helm of Airbus’ operations in the Western Hemisphere at Airbus Americas. We’ll soon see if he was the issue at JetBlue or not.
Apparently, to one apologist who routinely posts here, Delta is the world’s only PERFECT airline.
@Tim Dunn — jetBlue’s Mint is better than most domestic First. I wish they’d survive and actually open a decent lounge at JFK (supposedly, that’s in the works, yet, why on Earth did Barclays begin that credit card with the nearly $500 annual fee before it’s ready…)
A disjointed route structure, a fragmented product offering, and operational challenges have dogged this airline for a long time. It was a darling of the industry until the meltdown of 2007 proving that it wasn’t ready for the operational issues of a larger airline flying into problematic airports.
The airline business is a very capital and asset intensive business. It’s hard to shrink to profitability. Maybe with a Chapter 11 reorganization which would let Jetblue easily she contracts, planes and other assets, workers and union contracts.
I trust JBU pilots and crew to get us to the destination.
I don’t trust JBU management to fly the airline.
As Alaska picked up a near bankrupt Hawaiian, so too will go B6, Frontier and Spirit. Their market caps are whittling down to nothing.
For the employees sakes, I hope there’s some acquisitions rather than going TWA.
WN will survive the Elliott cuts, but the balance sheet trends say that Frontier, Spirit and JetBlue will all be a memory in a few years. Sad.
Win,
the basic reason for B6′ failure is that they didn’t ever develop any advantages that someone else couldn’t duplicate. IN the airline industry those moats are hubs like ATL, DFW, DTW, ORD etc.
B6 isn’t the largest carrier in any of its major markets. THAT is B6′ strategic problem.
JetBlue became the largest airline out of Boston when Delta went Chapter 11
Prior to their Chapter 11 Delta owned the air between Boston and south Florida. JetBlue ceased the opportunity offering many more flights daily than Delta.
Delta could put a nail in JB’s coffin with an aggressive push.
B6 needs to find a way to merge with AS under the AS leadership. I know Alaska is currently focused on their Hawaiian plan, but it’s basically the only airline option that would make it past the DOJ barring a true devolution into ULCC territory.
Tim Dunn: Are you familiar with the Manchester on Virginia?