JetBlue chief views 2021 as ‘perfect time’ for London launch

JetBlue Airways plans to launch transatlantic services in the second half of 2021 amid what it expects to be a resurgence in demand for air travel, according to the airline’s CE Robin Hayes. “We actually think that launching flights to London next summer, probably in Q3, is the perfect time to introduce all of my friends in the UK and in Europe to what I consider the very positive effect of flying JetBlue,” Hayes says. Many travellers “just want to wait a little bit longer to feel comfortable about flying”, Hayes observes, adding that he expects the 2021 summer season to be characterised by “tremendous pent-up demand for travel”. JetBlue’s planning assumption is that “all of our leisure travel will be largely recovered by the end of 2021”, he says. The carrier announced in early 2019 that it planned to launch transatlantic flights some time in 2021, with services to London from New York John F Kennedy and Boston, but noted in May this year that there would be a “timing impact” from the coronavirus crisis. The arrival of an established low-cost operator on transatlantic routes is viewed as a potentially disruptive event in a market that has been largely dominated by legacy network carriers.<br/>