Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\nSpeaking from Fort Lauderdale, JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty said the airline had been preparing for the opportunity for months as Spirit faced financial challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cFort Lauderdale is a fantastic opportunity for us. We knew, as most of the public knew, that Spirit was not great. They filed for bankruptcy twice, so we\u2019ve really been preparing for this day over the last months,\u201d Geraghty said.<\/p>\n
The airline is increasing its daily operations in Fort Lauderdale from about 130 flights to roughly 150 flights by the end of the year. As part of the expansion, JetBlue is hiring across multiple departments, including recruiting former Spirit crew members.<\/p>\n
\u201cJetBlue\u2019s growing in the Fort Lauderdale area. We\u2019re now at 130 flights. We\u2019re going to be growing to about 150 by the end, so we are hiring across most of our workgroups and hiring Spirit crew members,\u201d Geraghty said.<\/p>\n
For many former Spirit customers, one of the biggest questions is whether JetBlue\u2019s fares will be as inexpensive as the ultra-low-cost carrier\u2019s. Geraghty said JetBlue remains committed to offering affordable travel but cannot promise Spirit-level pricing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want fares to be affordable, but we want to make sure we offer a great product, too,\u201d she said, noting that fuel and labor remain two of the airline\u2019s largest expenses.<\/p>\n
Instead, Geraghty said JetBlue aims to provide added value through amenities included in its base fares, such as complimentary Wi-Fi, snacks, seatback televisions and additional legroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very mindful of the fact that we need to have affordable fares for flyers that maybe don\u2019t want to purchase the higher or mid fares,\u201d she said. \u201cYou get more free Wi-Fi, snacks, a little legroom (and) television.\u201d<\/p>\n
The airline is also expanding travel options for customers flying throughout the East Coast.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor people who are flying up and down the East Coast, we will have 370 connecting opportunities to Fort Lauderdale,\u201d Geraghty said.<\/p>\n
As JetBlue continues its expansion, the airline hopes to attract both longtime customers and former Spirit flyers looking for new travel options through Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2014 JetBlue is expanding its footprint at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, adding more flights, hiring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-334359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}