JetBlue to end Burlington-New York route

Come January, Vermonters will have fewer options when flying out of the Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport.

Jetblue, which operates two round-trip flights daily between Burlington and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, announced Wednesday, Oct. 25 that it is pulling out of the Vermont airport entirely, effective Jan. 4.

Delta Airlines, meanwhile, is reducing flights between Burlington and New York airports, that airline confirmed to VTDigger Wednesday.

Delta plans to scale back its three daily round-trip flights between Burlington and JFK to one, effective Dec. 7. It will also cut back four daily round-trip flights between Burlington and LaGuardia Airport in Queens to two as of Jan. 8, the company said.

In a statement addressing the departure of JetBlue, Nic Longo, the Burlington airport’s director of aviation, said that airline’s passengers made up 10 percent of the airport’s monthly customer base on average.

“We are disappointed to learn the news JetBlue Airways will be discontinuing their one route to New York-JFK,” Longo said, adding that the company had flown out of Burlington for more than two decades.

Longo noted in his statement that travelers will still have the option of flying Delta to JFK. He did not address that airline’s decision to reduce those flights.

United Airlines also offer flights to New York from Burlington. In his statement Longo said the airport was “in active talks with a handful of new airline partners to establish new routes and destinations.”

JetBlue, which is ending several other routes between JFK and other airports, cited “ongoing air traffic control staffing challenges” and an effort to reduce congestion in the New York airspace. The staffing shortage has led the Federal Aviation Administration to allow several carriers to cut back on New York flights, the Associated Press reported.

“Exiting a market is a difficult decision, however we expect the current air traffic controller shortage to last for some time and do not see a path to feasibly bringing back this flight,” JetBlue corporate communications said in a statement about its Burlington pullout.

Affected customers will be refunded, the company said in its statement.

Last year Frontier Airlines pulled out of the airport, which is physically located in South Burlington but is owned by the City of Burlington. The reductions come as the airport is undergoing a major expansion that is expected to include a hotel.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified which airlines now offer direct flights from Burlington to New York City.

This story, by Auditi Guha, was first published by VTDigger on Oct. 25.