JetBlue Airways planning to return to Atlanta, compete with Delta

JetBlue Airways had only after three years of its existence in 2003 expanded its network to Atlanta with flights to Long Beach Airport and Oakland. The airline had however within few months of operations here decided to quit the Atlanta market.

Media reports said that JetBlue Airways has once again decided to return to Atlanta once again. The airline’s return is going to pose challenges for Delta Air Lines in its largest hub and hometown Atlanta itself. The airline recently wrote to the officials at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport showing keen interest in resuming its flights operations again starting from September 2017 onwards. The airline wants to conduct 18 daily flights to Atlanta and seeking access to two “preferential gates” here.

JetBlue Airways considers Atlanta to be a significant and bigger market in comparison to most U.S. cities where it is growing lately. The airline had in recent years launched flights services to new cities with less than half a dozen flights daily. However, the airline’s decision to operate 18 flights to Atlanta daily is being seen as an unusually bold move for expansion.

JetBlue Airways has though declined to reveal its plans where it would be launching new routes. Travel experts said that the airline would not like to repeat its past mistake of launching flights services to the U.S. West Coast again. It is believed that the airline would this time prefer to focus on key four U.S. East Coast cities such as Orlando, New York, Fort Lauderdale and Boston. These are probably the major East Coast focus cities where JetBlue Airways thinks it would be competing successfully with Delta Air Lines.

According to the reports, Boston has emerged as the key market from among these four East Coast focus cities. JetBlue has become the largest airline in Boston in recent years. The airline’s focus on Boston has allowed it to make inroads in the corporate travel market. Keeping up with its momentum JetBlue Airways has announced that it would start operating six times daily flights to New York’s LaGuardia Airport from Boston.