SF Gate
In this week’s news, JetBlue plans to drop 37 routes this fall and winter as part of a network restructuring — including a couple from San Francisco; regional carrier JSX adds more California routes; LAX gets more service to Canada; Frontier adds international destinations; U.S. carriers bring back more Tokyo service this fall; American joins United in ordering new supersonic passenger jets; United makes a down payment on electric-powered air taxis; leading trade organization predicts business travel’s full recovery will take two years longer than previously expected, and also sees significant increases in airfares; Denver International starts to relocate passenger check-in areas; and Reno-Tahoe International plans some facilities improvements starting next month. JetBlue is the latest carrier to make some big changes to its network, with the elimination of 37 routes — including two from the Bay Area. Most of the affected routes are out of Newark (17) and Fort Lauderdale (12), according to The Points Guy. The airline’s latest schedule revision includes the elimination of its daily nonstop service between San Francisco International and Newark. When we checked JetBlue’s reservations system, we found no SFO-Newark nonstops available after Sept. 6. (There’s still plenty of capacity between those two airports with multiple daily flights from United and a couple from Alaska Airlines. JetBlue continues to fly from SFO to New York JFK, and to sell American Airlines flights on that route as part of its Northeast Alliance with AA.) Also being dropped from JetBlue’s map is San Francisco to Hartford Bradley Airport in Connecticut, a route that had been previously suspended. JetBlue told The Points Guy that the fall route cuts were being made “to ensure continued operational reliability” — modern airline parlance for trying to preclude last-minute flight cancellations due to staff shortages.
