JetBlue Offers Low Cost International Service

Jet Blue will add two new international routes this winter.  Snowbirds headed to the Caribbean will welcome the news that low-cost carrier will now provide daily flights from Fort Lauderdale to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.  The group will also provide service from Lauderdale to the resort town of Cancun, Mexico.

Santo Domingo is the gateway to the Dominican Republic, one of the cheaper Caribbean islands to visit.  But JetBlue’s winter service doesn’t stop there.  Any travelers who can get to Fort Lauderdale’s Hollywood International Airport will be able to connect cheaply to a number of Caribbean destinations.  The Dominican routes are expected to have daily flights.  In additions, JetBlue will be beginning twice daily flights to San Juan, Puerto Rico on December 18th.

In February of 2009, JetBlue is planning to launch a new route to Nassau in the Bahamas.

It appears that, as some airlines are struggling, JetBlue thinks that the time is right to make a major play in the East Coast to Caribbean market.  This might be a welcome trend for hotels, resorts and tourist industry pros on the islands.  Tourism numbers are expected to be down this year all across the region.  Many local employees in the Bahamas, Tobago and Jamaica are worried about losing their jobs because of the projected lackluster high season.  With low-cost carriers offering service to more islands, more tourists might begin to feel that a Caribbean vacation is within their budget range.

In addition to the new routes, JetBlue will provide service from various East Coast airports to Aruba, Saint Maarten, Puerto Plata, Aguadilla…in addition to the above-mentioned routes.

Of course, JetBlue is remembered most for their 10-hour delays because of winter weather last year.  However, they recently scored highly in the Zagat 2008 airline ranking because of their overall quality.  Perhaps those embarrassing days are in the past.