{"id":419625,"date":"2026-10-05T22:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T22:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/419625\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T22:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T22:22:07","slug":"jetblue-grows-fort-lauderdale-hub-serving-colombia-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/419625\/","title":{"rendered":"JetBlue grows Fort Lauderdale hub serving Colombia cities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JetBlue<\/p>\n

JetBlue began daily nonstop flights between Fort Lauderdale and Barranquilla, Colombia.<\/p>\n

NurPhoto<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

JetBlue\u2019s big bet on Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport<\/a> is also a boost for at least one South American country.<\/p>\n

The New York-based airline has started daily nonstop service between FLL and Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport in Barranquilla, a city on Colombia\u2019s Caribbean coast.<\/p>\n

The carrier is using an Airbus A320 aircraft for the flights, which started Oct. 1. Passenger capacity is about 162.<\/p>\n

Flight 1957 departs daily from Fort Lauderdale at 11:05 a.m. and arrives at 12:55 p.m. Flight 1958 leaves Barranquilla at 2:05 p.m and touches down in Fort Lauderdale by 5:56 p.m. Travelers should still check with JetBlue for changes to the schedule.<\/p>\n

Barranquilla is one of two Colombian cities where JetBlue is landing in October. The carrier will start nonstop service between FLL and Cali on Oct. 15, also with an Airbus A320.<\/p>\n

Passengers on the Colombia flights get free high-speed Wi-Fi and screens at each seat. \u201cEvenMore\u201d travelers, the airline\u2019s premium economy, get extra legroom.<\/p>\n

Barranquilla and Cali become the third and fourth cities in Colombia where JetBlue flies. The airline already has FLL service to and from Medellin and Cartagena.<\/p>\n

The South American nation is vital for South Florida\u2019s economy. In 2025, Florida\u2019s fifth-largest export market was Colombia, accounting for $2.7 billion.<\/p>\n

JetBlue sees FLL<\/a> as important to connecting the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

\u201cFort Lauderdale continues to grow as an important connecting gateway for JetBlue, connecting customers from Barranquilla not only to South Florida but also to destinations across JetBlue\u2019s broader network across the U.S. and beyond,\u201d Daniel Shurz, senior vice president, revenue, network and enterprise planning, said in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019re excited to welcome Barranquilla to the JetBlue network and give customers another great option for traveling between South Florida and Colombia.\u201d<\/p>\n

JetBlue will certainly face competition. Colombian airline Avianca has daily nonstop flights between Fort Lauderdale and Bogota, Medellin, Cali and Barranquilla. American Airlines has a bevy of flights between Miami International Airport and several cities in Colombia.<\/p>\n

But JetBlue seems to be taking the long view. Its new flights come as the carrier has been betting big on the Fort Lauderdale airport, especially following the demise of Broward-based Spirit Airlines. In the days after Spirit shut down on May 2, JetBlue added 11 new destinations from FLL.<\/p>\n

By early July, JetBlue operated more than 125 daily departures to over 55 nonstop destinations from FLL, its largest schedule in history at the airport. Daily departures from FLL increased over 75% compared to the same time in 2025.<\/p>\n

That growth is on track with what JetBlue President Marty St. George said earlier this year when he forecasted 150 departures out of Fort Lauderdale by February 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we\u2019re bigger than we\u2019ve ever been at FLL,\u201d St. George said in an interview in May with the Miami Herald. \u201cAnd we\u2019re going to get a lot bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s now showing in the official statistics. Long accustomed to finishing second to Spirit at FLL, JetBlue now ranks first in number of passengers. The airline has handled 6.1 million passengers this year through the end of August, the most recent figures available. That marked a whopping 39.8% increase for the airline compared to the same period in 2025. It is first in market share with 28%. Delta Air Lines is in second with 13%.<\/p>\n

JetBlue is also making the Fort Lauderdale airport a hub this year, meaning scheduling JetBlue flights in a way that travelers can arrive there and have ample options to connect elsewhere., the airline president said.<\/p>\n

JetBlue doing that is something \u201cwe\u2019ve not done anywhere else,\u201d said St. George while at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino near Hollywood. He noted that the hub system 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.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published October 5, 2026 at 3:53 PM.<\/p>\n

Vinod Sreeharsha<\/a><\/p>\n

Miami Herald<\/p>\n

Vinod Sreeharsha covers tourism trends in South Florida for the Miami Herald.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JetBlue began daily nonstop flights between Fort Lauderdale and Barranquilla, Colombia. NurPhoto Getty Images JetBlue\u2019s big bet on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-419625","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\/419625","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=419625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}