JetBlue has confirmed that its next European city will be announced "very soon," joining London. This hint came from Eric Friedman, JetBlue's Director of Route Planning, at Routes World Las Vegas. He didn't provide any further information about it, but it is possible to narrow down the possibilities.

Where might be next?

According to Friedman, JetBlue's A321LRs (and coming XLRs) have the "size and range to explore new opportunities." Indeed, he said that it enables service to "a number of markets that have no or very limited nonstops to New York and/or Boston."

Of course, London stands out as a key exception, just as inevitable Paris will too. In both cases, it'll be targeting lower-priced premium demand and the fact that both are enormous markets to/from the USA.

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Paris is coming; where else?

Big and premium, Paris is imminent with JetBlue, and that well-known market doesn't warrant more attention now.

Putting Paris to one side, more UK destinations are likely to happen at some point, perhaps also Dublin in Ireland. As such, the following table highlights UK (non-London) and Ireland flights from New York JFK and Boston this winter and/or next summer. While no longer classed as a New York area airport, I've also included Newark because of its significance.

The table also highlights the other UK and Irish airports that had flights in the past few years. It doesn't include Jet2's Christmas shopping trips from various UK regional airports nor Continental's services to Bristol and more.

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Glasgow or Edinburgh?

Glasgow is Scotland's largest city and among the largest in the UK. However, it no longer has any New York or Boston flights. And given Virgin Atlantic ended Glasgow-Orlando, shifting to Edinburgh, the airport will undoubtedly be very keen to incentivize new transatlantic routes.

Booking data shows Glasgow-JFK had around 44,000 roundtrip point-to-point (P2P) passengers and Newark about 42,000 in 2019, both nonstop and indirect passengers combined. Will JetBlue serve Glasgow? It could also target wider US-bound passengers transiting JFK, a market of over 450,000 in 2019.

In contrast, nearby Edinburgh, Scotland's capital and key tourism destination, does have New York and Boston flights. It's helped by typically being a higher-yielding destination, suggesting more premium demand, which might attract JetBlue – despite more competition.

Delta has a year-round nonstop from JFK (5x weekly in winter, 1x daily in summer) and summer-seasonal from Boston (May and August, 1x daily), while United has a year-round Newark service (1x daily). It's unclear how many passengers originated in or went to Glasgow's core catchment.

Manchester?

Then there's Boston-Manchester. The route was served by Thomas Cook (2016-2018) and Virgin (2017-2019). In 2019, it had over 55,000 P2P passengers, a sizable and important market in its own right. It remains unserved.

JFK-Manchester might have been more obvious if Virgin and Aer Lingus UK didn't already serve it. However, despite Aer Lingus' JetBlue's codeshare, they revolve around P2P demand. Might JetBlue itself operate JFK-Manchester? It could also target Manchester's wider US-bound traffic totaling 1.7 million in 2019. Manchester-US capacity is far below what it used to be.

Where would you like JetBlue to fly next? Let us know in the comments.

• 

  JetBlue

  IATA/ICAO Code:

  B6/JBA

  Hub(s):

  Boston Logan International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, New York JFK Airport, Orlando International Airport

  Year Founded:

  2000

  CEO:

  Robin Hayes

  Country:

  United States