JetBlue’s Florida Expansion Plans Add 150 Daily Flights From Fort Lauderdale

The New York-based carrier is turning Spirit Airlines’ collapse into its biggest Florida bet yet — complete with a new first-class cabin and a $58.5 million grab for LaGuardia slots.

JetBlue Airways plans to fly more than 150 daily flights from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport by winter 2026 — its largest Florida expansion yet, built on capacity left behind by Spirit Airlines’ collapse.

The announcement came during JetBlue’s July 28 second-quarter earnings call, in which the airline reported a net loss of $247 million, widening from $74 million a year earlier, as fuel costs jumped 76.3% year-over-year to $4.23 a gallon. Aircraft fuel expenses alone surged 80.7% to $911 million.

Despite that pressure, JetBlue’s operating revenue climbed 14.5% year-over-year to $2.7 billion, and the airline recaptured 50% of its higher fuel costs through fares, beating a 40% internal target.

“The ability to recover and recapture… higher fuel costs has been a positive in all of this,” said Ursula Hurley, JetBlue’s chief financial officer.

JetBlue’s revenue per available seat mile, a core measure of unit revenue, rose 10.9% to 15.71 cents, driven by an 8.6% increase in average fares to $237.38. Costs excluding fuel rose a modest 2.4% to 11.12 cents per available seat mile. Even so, the fuel spike drove a $141 million operating loss, an operating margin of negative 5.2% and a diluted loss of 66 cents a share. JetBlue ended the quarter with $8.48 billion in total debt against $2.17 billion in liquidity.

The airline’s turnaround program, known as JetForward, has delivered $470 million in cumulative incremental earnings before interest and taxes through June, and executives are targeting $850 million to $950 million in annual incremental EBIT by 2027. JetBlue is aiming for earnings of at least $1 a share by 2028, assuming fuel prices normalize to around $3 a gallon. Executives cast the Florida buildout as central to insulating the airline from fuel-price swings, betting on strong leisure demand and lower operating costs in Fort Lauderdale compared with congested Northeast airports.

JetBlue’s Florida Expansion Takes Shape at Fort Lauderdale

“Spirit’s liquidation has presented us with a great opportunity to redeploy some of the flying we see at some of these higher-cost airports into Fort Lauderdale and provide a better experience for customers at a lower price,” said Joanna Geraghty, JetBlue’s chief executive officer.

“By this winter, we expect to operate more than 150 daily flights from Fort Lauderdale, our largest schedule ever from the airport, including our largest Mint presence as well,” said Martin “Marty” St. George, JetBlue’s president.

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, known as FLL, serves as both an origin-and-destination airport and a major connecting hub for Caribbean and Latin American traffic. Spirit Airlines, an ultra-low-cost carrier headquartered in nearby Dania Beach, Florida, left a significant vacuum in the South Florida market when it liquidated.

JetBlue had previously sought to acquire Spirit in a $3.8 billion deal that a federal judge blocked in January 2024 at the urging of the Department of Justice on antitrust grounds. This year, the carrier is moving to backfill the capacity Spirit left behind instead. St. George called Spirit’s exit “one of the most significant strategic opportunities JetBlue has seen in many years.”

Despite adding nearly 40% more capacity at Fort Lauderdale year-over-year, JetBlue’s revenue per available seat mile there grew 11% in the second quarter — an unusual result, since flooding a market with new seats typically pressures fares downward.

To manage the growth, JetBlue introduced a “structured bank schedule” this month with two southbound and two northbound connecting banks. “Earlier this month, we launched a more structured bank schedule with two southbounds and two northbound banks designed to better connect customers to the Caribbean and Latin America. The capacity is ramping well, and customer response to our added flying has been very positive,” St. George said.

JetBlue is also managing construction of Fort Lauderdale’s new Terminal 5 on behalf of Broward County, part of a $3.2 billion airport modernization program. The 230,000-square-foot, five-gate domestic terminal, designed by Gensler, is being built to LEED v4 Silver sustainability standards. Initial components are targeted for mid-2026, while full completion — including an $855 million automated people mover linking the terminals to an intermodal center — is expected by 2030. The five new gates will primarily serve JetBlue.

A New First-Class Cabin and Simpler Fares

JetBlue also plans to introduce a new domestic first-class product called “BlueFirst” on jets that lack its lie-flat “Mint” seating.

St. George said “it’s fair to say that [economy] cabins will be slightly smaller than they are right now” to make room for the new seats, though he described the move as measured. “We’re not looking at this as something that’s going to accelerate fast – we see this as a prudent addition to the revenue portfolio for JetBlue,” he said. Most of the retrofit work is expected to be finished by the end of 2027, with BlueFirst becoming a meaningful financial contributor in 2028.

The rollout accompanies a broader simplification of JetBlue’s fare structure that launched July 27, giving customers four cabin experiences — Main, EvenMore, BlueFirst and Mint — paired with three fare modifiers: Base, Standard and Flex. The new “Base” fare replaces JetBlue’s “Basic Economy” branding, stripping out seat selection while still offering a travel credit upon cancellation.

“With the introduction of BlueFirst and our recently improved EvenMore experience, we want to make sure customers can easily find the JetBlue experiences they are looking for,” St. George said in a July 27 statement.

Premium revenue per available seat mile grew 13% in the quarter, outpacing 11% growth in the main cabin. Loyalty revenue also rose 13% year-over-year, fueled by a 40% jump in new premium credit card sign-ups and a 21% increase in loyalty cash remuneration.

JetBlue Also Wins Spirit’s Old LaGuardia Slots

JetBlue’s growth push extends to New York, where the airline won a bankruptcy auction for 22 takeoff and landing slots at LaGuardia Airport formerly held by Spirit, submitting a winning bid of $58.5 million that beat an offer of $57.5 million from ultra-low-cost rival Frontier Airlines.

LaGuardia is a slot-controlled airport under Federal Aviation Administration rules, meaning takeoffs and landings are tightly capped and existing slots are scarce. Spirit’s package — 12 daily departures and 10 daily arrivals — was one of the largest blocks of New York airspace access to reach the market in years.

The sale is pending final court and Federal Aviation Administration approval, expected in early August. Once approved, JetBlue’s total LaGuardia slot count will rise from 31 to 53, enough capacity for up to 12 additional daily round-trip flights.

As part of the deal, JetBlue must assume Spirit’s former lease at LaGuardia’s historic Marine Air Terminal, also known as Terminal A, which has sat empty since Spirit’s shutdown. “No fountains, but definitely lower costs, which means hopefully better fares for our customers,” St. George said.

“We’re currently evaluating how best to utilize these slots as we consider opportunities to bring more of JetBlue’s competitive, customer-focused service to New York. We expect any expansion at LGA related to these slots would start in 2027,” JetBlue said in a July 21 emailed statement. Frontier Airlines has not publicly commented on its unsuccessful bid.

How Spirit Airlines Collapsed

Spirit’s liquidation, which took effect May 2, marked the largest U.S. commercial airline collapse in two decades. The carrier’s troubles built for years, compounded by a blocked merger, aircraft reliability problems and shifting post-pandemic economics.

The Department of Justice’s successful challenge to JetBlue’s proposed $3.8 billion purchase of Spirit in January 2024 removed what had been the ultra-low-cost carrier’s clearest path out of financial distress. Spirit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy that November, shed $795 million in debt through a 114-day restructuring and emerged in March 2025.

Persistent problems with Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan, or GTF, engines — which grounded as much as 20% of Spirit’s Airbus fleet at times — continued to strain the airline’s finances, and it filed a second Chapter 11 case in August 2025.

A spike in jet fuel prices tied to the 2026 Iran war, combined with the collapse of a proposed $500 million federal bailout, left Spirit without financing to support $2.8 billion in debt and $5 billion in lease obligations. At around 3 a.m. on May 2, the airline grounded its fleet of 114 Airbus jets, displacing 17,000 employees, and converted its case into a Chapter 7 liquidation.

“It’s a horrible day for employees,” U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean H. Lane said. Spirit attorney Marshall Huebner told the court there was “no remaining way out” of bankruptcy after a proposed federal financing plan collapsed.

The sale of Spirit’s gates, slots and other assets touched off an industry-wide scramble for its former territory — one JetBlue is now positioned to capture a substantial share of.