American Airlines, JetBlue add 24 new flights

American Airlines and JetBlue are adding a slew of new flights just in time for the busy summer travel season.

The aggressive ramp-up — part of the airlines’ Northeast Alliance partnership announced in February — adds 24 new routes in eight new cities, including the most flights of any other carrier between New York and Florida, the companies said on Wednesday.

Despite the upbeat news, American Airlines posted its fifth consecutive quarterly loss on Thursday — a whopping $1.25 billion — even as it noted during an earnings call that bookings are improving which has helped it to add more routes.

Most of the additions are flights from New York and Boston to such cities as Toronto, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Houston.

“With the Northeast Alliance, we are finally able to give our customers in New York and Boston what they’ve been asking for years — more JetBlue service and more JetBlue low fares,” said Scott Laurence, head of revenue and planning for JetBlue said in a statement.

The airlines also beefed up their international flights, adding nonstop service between New York and New Delhi, India beginning on Oct. 31.

The partners claim they are offering more ways to fly between the US and India than any other airline partnership, with flights to New Delhi leaving three times per week and additional flights with Qatar Airways linking Seattle to Bengaluru, India as well.

Flights to Athens, Greece, from New York beginning on June 3 and to Tel Aviv beginning on May 6 were previously announced in February.

Other airlines have begun to add international routes that they had previously slashed during the height of the pandemic, including Australia’s Qantas Airways and Singapore Airlines.

American also said it will remove the 50-seat regional aircraft from New York and Washington, DC, replacing them with planes that offer two classes of service.

“Since the inception of our partnership with JetBlue, we have committed to offering customers more flights, more destinations and a better experience when traveling,” Vasu Raja, American’s chief revenue officer said in a statement.

“We’re proud to deliver on those promises for our customers, not just in the Northeast, but throughout the entire American Airlines network, who now have greater access to the world.”