‘It was a constant battle’ to keep JetBlue in the Green Mountain State — a conflict that started long before the airline pulled out in 2023.

By Will Guisbond for the Community News Service

Vermonters got word last October that JetBlue Airways would leave Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport, a significant blow considering the airline’s lone route to New York’s John F. Kennedy International carried about 10% of all traffic coming in and out of the field. 

The airline, in a statement to local media at the time, cited air traffic controller shortages in the greater New York City area as the primary driver behind its decision. Those labor challenges appear to have hit other airlines in Burlington too: Delta Air Lines revealed around the same time that it would reduce service on its own route to New York’s Kennedy airport.

But more was going on behind the scenes at JetBlue. Interviews with former congressional and airport staff — and airline schedule data analyzed by the Community News Service — show the New York-based airline was mulling a break with the Burlington airport almost five years earlier and had been struggling with revenue there for years. 

During the busy congressional season on the Hill in 2018, a visitor appeared at then-U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy’s Washington office on Constitution Avenue: a senior executive from JetBlue. The sitdown came as the airline was considering pulling out completely from Burlington International that year, according to a former senior staffer for the Democratic senator with direct knowledge of the meetings, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

Former and current higher-ups at the airport say the same. 

“JetBlue was one of the airlines that was the least likely to stay in Burlington,” said Gene Richards, who at the time was airport director at Burlington International. “We had to work really hard to (keep them here) … It was a constant battle.” 

Richards, who left in 2021 amid workplace hostility claims, told CNS that the airport went as far to reduce fees and be creative about how to keep prices low in an effort to keep JetBlue around. Ultimately, Richards said, he asked Vermont’s entire congressional delegation in 2018 to step in and, effectively, mediate between the two sides. 

Eventually, JetBlue announced several service cuts in October 2018 — none that included Burlington’s coveted route to Kennedy International. Around the same time, the company trimmed service at Portland International Jetport in Maine, a similarly sized market. But the airline’s departure wasn’t far on the horizon — and for those with an eye on key data trends for the company, it likely wasn’t surprising.

Data from Cirium Aviation Analytics, an industry standard for airline schedule data, shows how this theme has made its way to Vermont, too. The Cirium data was available to a CNS reporter through his employment with The Air Current, an aviation analysis publication. In the years preceding the 2018 meetings, JetBlue had seen a steady decline in onboards at Burlington International, or the number of revenue-paying passengers boarding its airplanes.