Oakland loses another major airline: JetBlue Airline plans to fly away April 29 following several other carriers

JetBlue hightails it out of Oakland International on April 29 JetBlue hightails it out of Oakland International on April 29 Photo: Bill Montgomery, Houston Chronicle Photo: Bill Montgomery, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 13 Caption Close Oakland loses another major airline: JetBlue 1 / 13 Back to Gallery

Today, yet another airline announced that it will fly away from Oakland International Airport: JetBlue. As the low-fare aviation darling struggles to remain profitable competing in a world filled with monolithic major carriers, it announced a series of cutbacks to California flights today.

In a statement, the carrier said, "Effective April 29, 2020, JetBlue will end service at Oakland International Airport (OAK) where it currently serves New York-JFK, Boston and Long Beach. JetBlue will continue to serve Bay Area travelers from airports in San Francisco and San Jose. In addition, JetBlue will reduce or eliminate flights on a half dozen short-haul routes in Long Beach as well as additional flights from Fort Lauderdale and Orlando."

The cuts will be especially painful for Oakland International, which has seen a rash of recent retrenchments, primarily from international airlines such as Norwegian Air, British Airways and Level.

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Without JetBlue, Oakland will no longer offer nonstop service to the New York City area, the country's largest air travel market. Southwest will be the only carrier offering nonstops between Oakland and Long Beach. JetBlue will also cut its nonstops from Long Beach to both Sacramento and San Jose.

Why the cutbacks? In a press release announcing new service between New York-JFK and Guatemala City, Bozeman and Nashville, the carrier said the cuts were made "to enable the new city, multi-route expansions and frequency additions," as it redeploys aircraft by "adding flights on some existing routes and reducing flights on others that are not meeting expectations."

RELATED: Oakland lands new nonstop to South Florida airport

JetBlue is one of many airlines, namely Alaska Air, having trouble competing in the hyper-competitive intra-California market.

There's no word yet on how this reduction might affect JSX, a JetBlue partner which operates out of a private terminal at Oakland International.

When asked about an end date for the new seasonal service, a Spirit spokesperson said, "September 8, but there is always potential for extension or year-round depending on success of the route."

Perhaps JetBlue's exit could pave the way for United to jump back into the Oakland market, a move the Chicago-based carrier has been mulling over in recent years. A nonstop from Oakland to Newark or other United hubs could help fill some big gaps in Oakland service.

In a 2019 one-on-one interview with United's new CEO Scott Kirby (then United's president), he said, "Oakland is on our list. I'm not sure when we are going to add it, but we are going to get back into the East Bay. We have not decided the timing yet, but we are absolutely planning to get back into Oakland."United stopped flying between Oakland and Denver in 2012 with—ending a 75-year run with flights to multiple destinations.

Update: In a statement about the loss of JetBlue, Oakland's director of Aviation Bryant Francis said, "JetBlue Airways has been an important part of the OAK airport family for 20 years, so clearly today’s news is disappointing. The fact that several of JetBlue’s local team members have been onboard for most of this time speaks volumes to the type of employer it is. ... While we understand the fluidity of our industry, we remain grateful for the opportunity to have served as the airline’s initial Bay Area base. "

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Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis.