JetBlue scraps all flights between two major cities

JetBlue Airways' (JBLU) primary hub is John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, but the low-cost carrier offers several routes from the two other airports in the New York City area.

The airline flies to Fort Lauderdale from both JFK and LaGuardia, while a flight to New Orleans International Airport (MSY) can be booked from either JFK or Newark.

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The LGA-Boston flight will be officially cut come April

While the airline has been running a flight between JFK and Boston Logan for years before, JetBlue launched a second route to Boston from LaGuardia in 2016. At the time, JetBlue was banking on rising numbers of business travelers looking for a quicker way to get to Boston, as well as building out Logan as a second hub.

Neither of those predictions panned out in the way that JetBlue had anticipated, and by the spring of 2023, JetBlue had slashed many of its Boston routes indefinitely. On Feb. 6, aviation watchdog Ishrion Aviation reported that the flashy LGA-Boston route would also be cut by the end of April 2025.

'Impossible for us to offer low fares while maintaining profitability': JetBlue

A JetBlue spokesperson later confirmed that the flight would be axed as part of its cost-cutting measures meant to cut out any route that did not bring in necessary traffic. LGA has also upped the airport fees it charges the airline which further seeped into profitability.

"As part of our JetForward strategy to build the best East Coast leisure network, JetBlue will discontinue service between Boston Logan (BOS) and New York LaGuardia (LGA)," JetBlue spokesperson Derek Dombrowski said in a later statement. "The airport fees charged to JetBlue at LGA have risen sharply — now about $50 per traveler — which make it impossible for us to offer the low fares customers expect while maintaining profitability on this route."

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The entire route crossed just over 185 miles and took one hour and 15 minutes on an Embraer E190 (ERJ) .

Canadian low-cost carrier likely to fill gap left by JetBlue

Ishrion Aviation further reported that JetBlue had initially been expecting to increase the flight frequency to six times a week; now, it will be retired by April 30. This frees up six gate slots at an airport that has especially strict regulations on the number of flights that can depart.

In its statement that came out after the news broke, JetBlue said that it would use the "three takeoff and landing slots to leisure markets while leasing the remaining three to another carrier." Early analysis shows that this would likely be Canadian low-cost airline Porter Airlines which recently launched a spate of new flights to New York from Toronto's Pearson Airport (YYZ). JetBlue and Porter have an existing codeshare agreement.

"JetBlue planned to operate BOS-LGA 6x daily," Ishrion wrote on Feb. 5. "Presumably 3x of these slots will move to Porter for their new LGA flights on May 1."

JetBlue will continue flying to Boston from its main hub at JFK, while the LGA route is currently also offered by Delta (DAL) and American Airlines (AAL) .

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