Jetblue continues Caribbean push

Low cost operator Jetblue has announced a new wave of routes from Boston for 2010 to the Caribbean. The main highlights are;

• Aruba- increase from 2-5 weekly
• Cancun- increase from 1-3 weekly
• Montego Bay- increase from 1-2 weekly
• San Juan- increase from 10-11 weekly
• Daily flight to Bermuda
• Daily flight to Santa Domingo

The new routes will commence from May 3rd. Jetblue has undertaken a significant expansion in the Caribbean since early 2008 since American Eagle pulled most of its Caribbean services and left many of the Caribbean Island underserved in terms of capacity. As well as operating a whole host of Routes from the US, jetblue also started new intra Caribbean service from San Juan to Santa Domingo which has exceeded expectations in terms of performance.

jetblue is now the 6th largest carrier in terms of flights operated between the US and the Caribbean and Central America, with 564 weekly flights, giving it a market share of 5% which is set to increase. The leading 5 carriers operating between the US and Central America and the Caribbean are

• American Airlines - 2542 weekly flights - 26% market share
• Continental Airlines- 1677 weekly flights- 17% market share
• Mexicana - 790 weekly flights - 8% market share
• US Airways - 689 weekly flights - 7% market share
• Delta Airlines - 663 weekly flights - 6% market share

In total there are 39 airlines that operate between the Caribbean and the US.