JetBlue ‘going to get a lot bigger’ with Fort Lauderdale hub, airline head says

Weeks after the collapse of hometown Spirit Airlines, JetBlue Airways is doubling down on serving Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International, giving Florida’s third-largest airport a needed boost.

The carrier is adding dozens of daily flights to and from FLL, reaching more destinations, and making the airport a hub this year, meaning scheduling JetBlue flights in a way that travelers can arrive there and have ample options to connect elsewhere, JetBlue President Marty St. George said in an interview with the Miami Herald on Friday. The company is also expanding a pilot base in Broward.

Additionally, New York-based JetBlue has been hiring crew members from Spirit Airlines, the Broward-based carrier that shut down on May 2, the executive said.

“Right now, we’re bigger than we’ve ever been at FLL,” St. George said. “And we’re going to get a lot bigger.”

By July, JetBlue expects to have about 128 daily flights, up from 108 now. By February 2027, the airline plans to have about 150. But that number won’t likely hold for long.

“I think it will go higher than 150” as the carrier continues to expand throughout 2027, St. George said in the interview at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino near Hollywood.

Based on those numbers, JetBlue should become the top airline at FLL. Already in 2024 and 2025, the carrier was second behind Spirit in number of passengers it brought in and took out.

A Broward base for pilots

JetBlue will also expand a pilot base at the Fort Lauderdale airport. The base, where pilots start their day, now serves crews that fly Airbus A320 series planes, but plans are to include those that fly the A220 series.

JetBlue recently obtained its 64th A220 airplane and is on track for 70 by year-end, the executive said. The smaller airplane which seats about 140, helps the carrier fly to new markets because passenger demand can initially be unpredictable. That’s important as the company seeks to offer more connections at FLL.

“At 70, it’s about the time to add a third crew base,” St. George said, referring to the airline’s first two in New York and Boston. And South Florida “is the logical place.” Many pilots from the region fly the A220 and until now have had to commute to New York or Boston to do so, he said.

The carrier expects the expanded base to host about 150 additional pilots and to be ready by the end of 2026.

What about JetBlue in Miami, Cuba and Haiti?

Despite its South Florida expansion mode, JetBlue has no plans to return to Miami, Cuba or Haiti, the airline’s president said. He cited an incident last year in Haiti when a Spirit plane was shot at, putting a hole put in the airplane’s side. “The most important thing for us is safety,” he said, regardless of whether a place is a good market.

For now, JetBlue’s focus is on FLL. Spirit Airlines had more flights at FLL in 2025 than any other carrier, and it was the top source of passengers who traveled through the Broward airport, about 28% of the total in 2025. Of the 17,000 Spirit employees, more than 2,500 were based at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

JetBlue already started adding destinations from Fort Lauderdale after Spirit filed for bankruptcy the first time, in 2025. And the airline has a history with the community. JetBlue’s first flight was from New York John F. Kennedy International Airport to FLL in 2000.

In the days after Spirit shut down, JetBlue added 11 new destinations from FLL. Today it has about 108 flights per day to 55 places.

JetBlue making FLL a hub is something “we’ve not done anywhere else,” the airline president said. He noted that this allows travelers to come into FLL from the north and have the ability to connect to many places in the Caribbean or throughout Latin America.

He used Cleveland as an example, saying today there’s enough demand for one daily flight. But with the hub in place, the carrier could justify adding a second daily flight. “We’ll have more opportunities” because of that structure, he noted.

The small countries close to Florida are an important market opportunity, he said. “Proximity to the Caribbean is very important,” he said.

“FLL is a great place to change airplanes compared to MIA which is very difficult,” the executive said in the interview after giving the keynote address at the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance’s Mid-Year Meeting & Luncheon, a get-together of business leaders and local officials

Miami is one place JetBlue won’t be expanding. The airline pulled out of MIA completely last year and has no plans on returning.

“FLL is a much more customer-friendly airport and also a much cheaper airport for airlines,” said St. George. He said JetBlue couldn’t lower fares as much as it needed to be competitive.

“We had to charge a premium in Miami and people wouldn’t pay a premium to go there,” the executive said. He also thinks FLL is a better geographic fit, “in the middle of this big metro area,” from Palm Beach County to the Florida Keys.

JetBlue has been looking at growing at FLL since Spirit’s first bankruptcy filing.

“We did find some specific places that we had wanted to fly and thought this would be a good time to start building up the market,” said St. George. But the airline was squeezed at the airport because Spirit occupied many of the gates, especially at prime flying hours. So JetBlue picked markets strong enough for flights during off-hours. But as Spirit canceled more flights, more attractive times opened for JetBlue.

Even with the expansion plans, JetBlue has financial challenges of its own. Analysts and travel experts point to JetBlue’s lack of profitability and have suggested the airline may even face bankruptcy. But when asked about that, company president replied: “I’m not worried.”

But he acknowledged that the price of fuel was a critical issue.

“If fuel does not come down in the next year or so, I think the whole industry is going to face a tough situation,” he said. “Fuel is our single biggest expense, and it has basically doubled.”

JetBlue has about 2,500 employees based at FLL, including pilots, flight attendants and technicians. And that number is expected to grow, especially as the number of flights increases.

“We’ll certainly do a lot of hiring here,” St. George said.

Help for Spirit employees

JetBlue was trying to help out Spirit workers even before their company failed. Over the past six months, the airline has been hiring crew members, a long process requiring security clearances. And since the shutdown, JetBlue has allowed its own crew members to nominate Spirit workers for jobs, and now there’s a formal process in place. The airline has committed to giving preferential interviews to former Spirit workers.

St. George said he went to FLL the Monday morning after Spirit announced its demise. He led a JetBlue meeting in the break room. Already, workers were discussing people they knew at Spirit. They just needed to put together a formal referral system.

Said St. George: “It’s a community.”