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The biggest airline at Boston’s Logan Airport has plans to fly across the pond, and its growth at the airport is fueling the transatlantic ambition.
JetBlue has plans to fly multiple flights daily between London and its hubs in Boston and New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport by 2021, the company announced Wednesday at an all-hands meeting for employees. JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes said London is the largest unserved destination for its customers at both airports, PaxEx Aero reports.
“We might be New York’s hometown airline, but we’re the heart of Boston," JetBlue President and Chief Operating Officer Joanna Geraghty said.
She said the company’s operations in Boston will eventually be larger than what it has at JFK. Aviation analysts have noted JetBlue’s real estate at Logan has aided its growth. The airline has 24 gates at Terminal C, and most of those are connected to Terminal E, Logan’s international terminal. The airline is expected to expand to 30 gates in Boston after a connector between terminals B and C is built.
“The adjacency of JetBlue’s operations at Terminal C to the international Terminal E has turned into a key competitive advantage it’s been able to use to persuade international carriers to partner with them to access their extensive domestic feeder operations,” Perry Director of Intelligence Brendan Carroll said. “It appears they will now be able to feed their own long-haul operations as well.”
JetBlue’s Wednesday presentation noted its Boston operation focuses on business travelers, while its New York hub and focus cities, including Fort Lauderdale and San Juan, Puerto Rico, handle more leisure traffic.
The airline has been a huge driver of traffic at the airport, which cleared the 40 million-passenger mark for the first time in its history last year. The growth in traffic, especially from a wave of new international destinations, also helps fuel Boston’s real estate market.
“We view the growth in international travel choices and traffic at Logan as a significant driver of Boston’s currently thriving economic ecosystem,” Carroll said.
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