JetBlue’s long game involves more international flights

JetBlue plans to expand in Latin America and add new destinations in Africa following its $3.8b takeover of Spirit Airlines. Joanna Geraghty, JetBlue’s president and COO, said while its planned acquisition would give it more scope to fly to the Midwest in the US and several states it traditionally flies over, not into, there was scope to expand internationally. Speaking Tuesday — the day JetBlue launched its long-awaited Boston-London Heathrow route — Geraghty said she wanted to leverage Spirit’s international network, a third of which includes the Caribbean. More routes in and around Latin America were next, beyond Cancun in Mexico. “There are destinations we’ve wanted to serve, but we haven’t had the aircraft to do that. We’ve had to prioritize. (The takeover) will absolutely accelerate our growth plan,” she told moderator Edward Russell, editor of Skift’s Airline Weekly. There were also some parts of western Africa that its new Airbus XLR aircraft could make it to, she added. “It’s not on the radar right no, but I hope to see it happen some day.”<br/>