JetBlue Has Come to Cuba to Stay
JetBlue made history this week, or at least it played a major role in a historic moment in the new relations between Cuba and the United States.
For the first time in over fifty years, this New York-based low-cost airline made its inaugural scheduled flight from the U.S. to Cuba since 1961, a development that comes to pass within the restoration of diplomatic ties between the two countries that resumed in December 2014.
Caribbean News Digital had the privilege of boarding that opening flight from Fort Lauderdale in Florida to the city of Santa Clara in central Cuba, and it also had the opportunity to interviewing several JetBlue top executives.
Giselle Cortes, director of International Airports for JetBlue, sat down with Caribbean News Digital and talked about the significance of this historic moment.
“It’s an incredibly emotional moment for me because I’m part of this airline with a solid commitment to mankind, a carrier that has now become the first airlines in serving scheduled flights between the U.S. and Cuba. The emotion is tremendous,” Mrs. Cortes said at the top of this interview.
JetBlue will be flying to the city of Santa Clara with three weekly flights that will eventually accrue to seven flights a week beginning October 1. Then it will start serving the cities of Camaguey on November 3 and Holguin on November 10.
JetBlue currently flies to 96 destinations, so the addition of the three Cuban cities brings the total to 99 routes. The company hopes that Havana (USDOT has just granted rights to JetBlue to start Havana flights) could become the 100th destination on its list.
On the possibility of opening an office in Cuba, Mrs. Cortes said they are “working to open an office on the island and make an announcement in coming weeks. We’ve looked at several places and the since our management’s vision is set on the long run on a hope to make JetBlue the carrier of choice between the U.S. and Cuba, so is the idea about the office we’d like to open here. We don’t want it to be just a ticket sale outlet, but a genuine JetBlue flying experience.”
In the face of staunch competition among rival airlines now that the Cuban market is up for grabs, JetBlue wanted to be the first airline to fly to the island and bring its unique flying experience, coupled with professional, hassle-free service and low airfares that make it highly attractive.
As to the possibility of launching its well-known Mint Service on some of its Cuban flights, Mrs. Cortes had this to say: “Mint has been quite a success for us and it’s now available for the Barbados and Aruba markets. On November 5, Mint will be launched on St. Martin and St. Lucia. The trip from Ft. Lauderdale to Cuba is short, but once we start flying from other destinations up north, like New York and Boston, I’m sure our management will consider the possibility of launching the Mint Service on some of the Cuba flights as well.”
JetBlue has solid expansion plans in the offing and Cuba is a major piece in that marketing puzzle. “Both the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico started out the same way Cuba is doing it now, and today JetBlue is the number-one airline in the two countries.
“We’re currently serving fifty flights to Puerto Rico and nearly 30 flights to the Dominican Republic during the high-peak travel season. We hope Cuba will follow suit,” the director of International Airports for JetBlue concluded.
