JetBlue Grows Fort Lauderdale in Spirit’s Absence

One person’s trash is another’s, well, you know. And in that vein, JetBlue Airways, now Fort Lauderdale’s dominant carrier by a wide margin with Spirit’s demise, is already adding 11 new destinations to replace the yellow airplane-shaped hole in FLL’s departure board.

Six of the cities are new (or returning) to the JetBlue family:

• Barranquilla (1x daily begins October 1)
• Baltimore (3x daily begins July 9)
• Cali (1x daily begins October 15)
• Charlotte (3x daily begins July 9)
• Columbus (1x daily begins November 2)
• Indianapolis (1x daily begins November 2)

And five are already served from elsewhere but are now adding service to Fort Lauderdale — all of these will begin July 9:

• Chicago/ORD (2x daily)
• Detroit (2x daily)
• Houston/IAH (3x daily)
• Nashville (3x daily)
• Ponce (1x daily)

In addition to these new cities, the airline is also beefing up service from FLL to: Austin, Aguadilla, Dallas/DFW, Raleigh-Durham, Santiago de los Cabelleros (DR), and Santo Domingo.

To make Spirit customers feel at home on these flights, JetBlue will provide complimentary BuzzBallz to anyone who shows up in a tube top or ripped t-shirt and also to anyone who removes their shoes and socks during the flight.

Frontier’s Q1 is a Familiar Refrain

Record gross revenue, but a big net loss for the quarter — stop us if you’ve heard this story before. Because Frontier is joining the club of U.S. carriers setting records for Q1 revenue but still ending up with a net loss which they can conveniently blame on high fuel prices.

The carrier reported gross revenue just shy of $1 billion, but with a net loss of $272 million, which comes out to $1.18 per diluted share. Frontier operated 1% less capacity than in Q1 ’25, but it jumped revenue by 17%. Unit revenue rose from 9.17 cents to 10.8 cents, and stage-length adjusted to 1,000 miles it also jumped from 8.81 cents to 10.29 cents.

Fuel, unsurprisingly, was a problem. Fuel expenses for Frontier were $268 million, a figure that accounts for its net loss almost entirely on its own. Until Frontier figures out how to have its airplanes powered by the animals on its tails — a particularly challenging issue for Tico the Two-Toed Sloth — that will remain a problem. Looking forward, Frontier’s Q2 outlook isn’t rosy as it tries to right the ship. It expects to grow capacity 6-8% in the quarter but with another net loss. Its liquidity at the end of the quarter totaled $974 million, but it expects that to drop as low as $900 million following Q2.

Breeze Adds 11

Another place Spirit’s demise has left a gaping hole is Atlantic City where thousands of travelers desperately want to leave regularly. But fear not, Jersey boys and girls, because Breeze is planning to blow in and be the first to fill the void.

Breeze will takeover four routes vacated by Spirit from ACY to include:

• Orlando (daily, begins July 3)
• Fort Myers (3x weekly service begins October 22)
• Myrtle Beach (2x weekly begins October 22)
• West Palm Beach (3x weekly service begins December 17)

But wait, that’s not all! Breeze is adding seven more routes to sun destinations including its first service to St Thomas. New service for Breeze:

• Pittsburgh to Cancún and Punta Cana (3x weekly seasonal service begins January 7 on both)
• Columbus to Punta Cana (2x weekly seasonal service begins January 8)
• Richmond to Cancún (2x weekly seasonal service begins January 8)
• Pittsburgh to Vero Beach (3x weekly begins October 1)
• Tampa to St. Thomas (2x weekly begins December 16)
• Tampa to Cancún (2x weekly begins December 19)

Southwest is joining the backfilling game too, adding in Las Vegas and Orlando. Both cities will see new routes (26 from LAS, 23 from MCO), and four new routes from Las Vegas: Boston, Knoxville, Miami, and Philadelphia.

DOT, Mexican Government Get Closer to Ending Rift

The rift between the U.S. and México over access to Mexico City airports is moving closer towards a resolution. The two governments released statements saying that they have reached a consensus of a path forward to come into compliance with the 2015 U.S.- México Air Transport Agreement, which, no offense fellas, but this sounds more like a plan to figure out a plan.

Most notably, U.S. restrictions on Mexican carriers accessing U.S. airports will remain in place for now. The DOT says while this is a positive step forward, there’s still a ways to go. The Mexican side got what it wanted, which was acknowledgement from the U.S. that Mexico City/AIFA exists and is a part of both México and Mexico City’s airport system. According to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the spat started when he says México “illegal cancelled and froze U.S. carrier flights for three years without consequences.”

The Mexican government says these were established to ensure equitable and transparent access to airport infrastructure, expanding operational options, and strengthening logistics connectivity.” But we think there’s only one way this ends — Duffy at AIFA in a sombrero for a ribbon cutting ceremony of some sort.

BA Doubles Down on the Worst Idea Ever

We’ve got one place left where we don’t have to listen to people yammer on their phone to their mother-in-law, to Kathy from accounting, or circling back to take it offline on a Zoom call. But that last bastion of sanity might be going away as British Airways is doubling down on its decision to allow voice calls and video calls on Starlink-equipped planes to now allow it on all planes, regardless of the internet service installed.

Perhaps the best part are BA’s guidelines, specifically for voice calls: “If you’re making a call, keep your voice low and use headphones.​” Ok…good luck with that.

In BA’s defense, part of its reasoning does make sense, in that it says it’s happening anyway and it’s creating on-board conflicts with passengers and cabin staff. The hope seems to be that if everyone can do it, people will self-police obnoxious behavior, and that’ll end well because it always does. The question now is — when do we get the Airfone back?

• Air Transat is headed to the grandest of the Canary Islands. And it’s adding a new route to Panama.
• Air Zimbabwe has some issues.
• AirAsia ordered 150 A220s.
• Alaska is adding four west coast routes including a glorious return to Long Beach after 11 years: Seattle to Long Beach and Santa Rosa to Boise, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City.
• ANA will retire its final B777-300 (the non-ER version) by March.
• Contour will begin 4x weekly service from Denver to Ruidoso, NM.
• EgyptAir received its first B737 MAX.
• Emirates reported record revenue.
• ITA will return to Tripoli late this summer.
• JAL issues bond-type shares to raise more than $1 billion.
• Jin Air is adding five A321s.
• Lufthansa Group posted a Q1 loss, so at least some things never change.
• Riyadh Air looking for approval to operate to the U.S.
• TAP is expecting a binding offer for a minority stake in the carrier from Lufthansa.
• Scoot is ordering airplanes from Airbus, but not as many as AirAsia.
• Southwest is looking into hiring some mechanics from Spirit.

My current password for my email is “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”

The instructions from IT said a minimum of eight characters.