After many months of slimming its network of European flights, JetBlue Airways (JBLU) has just added two new ones to continental capitals — including to one brand-new destination.
The new flight between Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) and Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) in Madrid will mark the first time the carrier comes to Spain, while its flight to Edinburgh, Scotland, Airport (EDI) adds to a JFK route to the city launched last spring.
Both are seasonal flights that will start May 22, run during the peak period of summer travel to Europe, and will be retired on Oct. 24 until the following year.
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More transatlantic options for Boston and New England
This brings JetBlue's Europe route network from Boston to a total of seven flights: year-round flights to London's Heathrow Airport (LHR) and Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG) as well as seasonal routes to Amsterdam, Dublin and London's Gatwick (LGW).
“Madrid and Edinburgh represent two of Europe's most exciting and popular destinations, and we're happy to offer even more transatlantic travel options for our customers from Boston and New England," Daniel Shurz, who heads revenue, network and enterprise planning at JetBlue, said in a statement.
The Boston-Madrid flight will take just under seven hours and leave at 10:25 p.m. local time on the way to Europe and 1:30 p.m. on the way back.
The Boston-Edinburgh route will leave at 10:30 p.m. and arrive at 10:10 a.m. local time. On the way back, it will depart at 12:10 p.m. to arrive back in Boston at 2:22 p.m.
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Schurz added that "Europe continues to be part of [JetBlue's] network strategy."
Last week, the airline said it would be cutting its flights between JFK and Paris from two a day to once daily for summer 2025 and would drop its flight between New York and Gatwick altogether.
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Some JBLU Europe flights canceled, others added
Over the past year, the New York-based airline has made major changes to its global network by pulling out of cities such as Colombia's Bogotå and Peru's Lima as well as Kansas City and New York's Newburgh domestically.
Instead, it has poured resources into new flights to Puerto Rico and the Caribbean with routes to Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU) from Rhode Island’s Providence and New York’s Westchester County announced last May.
On the European end, transatlantic flights have been a mixed bag when it comes to profits for JetBlue.
While its new flights to Paris and London from New York saw relatively high uptake during the summer months, the competition for such routes from other carriers like Delta (DAL) and United Airlines (UAL) is sharp. Last September, Delta also scrapped one of its daytime flights to Paris amid insufficient traveler numbers.
JetBlue's Madrid and Edinburgh moves are designed to tap into travelers going to specific destinations — both business travelers and those looking to fly directly to certain European capitals for vacation — with routes underserved by other airlines.
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