JetBlue adds flights between Jacksonville and Fort Lauderdale

JetBlue is adding nonstop flights between Jacksonville and Fort Lauderdale, starting Oct. 29, the company announced Wednesday.

 

Tickets are on sale now and until May 30 will cost $69, one way, for flights between Oct. 29 and Dec. 17.

 

"This new route will provide business and leisure travelers with affordable and award-winning nonstop full-size jet service between these two vibrant cities," Dave Clark, vice president of network planning for JetBlue Airways, said in a press release.

This announcement is the second of its kind this week. Silver Airways also announced new flights between Jacksonville and Fort Lauderdale that will start later this year.

 

The two new services are in response to Southwest Airlines' announcing it will no longer offer flights from the Fort Lauderdale area, said Debbie Jones, community relations administrator for the Jacksonville Aviation Authority. 

"Southwest is pulling flights from Fort Lauderdale," she said. "These other carriers are picking up that market." 

Southwest will continue flights to and from Jacksonville, where it is one of the airport's largest carriers, she said.

 

"All the airlines make these decisions as to which markets are profitable to them," she said. "We never like to see something go away, but we are glad that other carriers have decided to fill that niche."