JetBlue unveils flights for Havana, its 100th city

JetBlue has announced the start dates and flight times for its new service to Havana, which will become the 100th destination on the carrier’s route map.

JetBlue’s first Havana flight will take off from New York JFK on Nov. 28, when the carrier launches daily service to the Cuban capital from its hometown and biggest hub. The airline’s second route to Havana will launch a day later when JetBlue begins daily service to Havana from Orlando, one of the carrier’s focus cities.

JetBlue’s third route to Havana will start Nov. 30 out of Fort Lauderdale, one of the fastest-growing bases in the company’s network. JetBlue’s Fort Lauderdale-Havana schedule will consist of two daily round-trip flights, except on Saturdays – when there will be one.

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All of the new flights will be operated on JetBlue’s new Airbus A321 aircraft.

JetBlue, of course, already flies to three other destinations in Cuba. Its inaugural flight to the country came Aug. 31 on a route from Fort Lauderdale to the central Cuban city of Santa Clara. That flight was the first regularly scheduled airline service between the nations since the Obama administration began loosening restrictions on travel to Cuba. Prior to that, it had been more than five decades since regularly scheduled, non-charter airline service had operated between the countries.

“Our historic first flight kicked off a new era in travel to Cuba, and once again JetBlue will make history with flights that finally make flying to the Cuban capital simple, affordable and enjoyable,” JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes said in a statement. “It’s remarkable that a startup airline less than 17 years old will mark Havana as its 100th destination.”

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In addition to Santa Clara, JetBlue’s other Cuban destinations are Camaguey and Holguin. The carrier serves all three from its base in Fort Lauderdale.

JetBlue and other carriers received regulatory approval to begin flights to secondary Cuban cities earlier than Havana. That was largely because the U.S. Department of Transportation had to open a bidding process for U.S. airlines, whose demand for Havana service outstripped the 20 daily flights allowed to the city under the new U.S.-Cuba aviation agreement.

As for JetBlue, it says that once the new Havana flights start, it will offer service to 100 destinations across the United States and more than 20 countries in the Latin America and the Caribbean.