JetBlue to reduce Newark, LaGuardia footprint as it forges ahead in Fort Lauderdale

JetBlue Airways told CNBC on Wednesday that it will close its flight attendant base at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and tech operations bases there and at LaGuardia Airport in New York this fall as it seeks to reduce costs and beef up service in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, though it noted that no staff will lose their jobs.

JetBlue said it is ending seasonal service between Newark and Los Angeles and Las Vegas. It said staff could bid or transfer to other bases.

"We're operating in a fast-changing landscape where competitors are constantly adding, reducing and shifting flying in response to market conditions," JetBlue President Marty St. George and COO Warren Christie said in a staff note, which was seen by CNBC. "We have to be just as agile, entering markets where we see opportunity and exiting those that no longer support our long-term goals. Standing still while competitors make moves isn't an option." 

The airline is already the top carrier at Fort Lauderdale, though it was previously second to Spirit Airlines, the South Florida-based discounter that collapsed on May 2. Competitors have also added service to the region.

JetBlue earlier Wednesday said it would expand daily, cross-country flights with its lie-flat business class, Mint, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to San Diego on Nov. 19 and will add more Mint-equipped flights this winter to San Francisco and Los Angeles.

That will include up to eight daily Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles flights and three a day to San Francisco.

JetBlue has spent years trimming unprofitable routes and cutting costs to return to steady profitability. Its last profitable quarter was two years ago, and the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport push is a big part of its strategy, St. George told CNBC earlier this month. The airline is scouting space for a high-end airport lounge there, too, he said.

Mint-equipped planes are lucrative and those seats carry a big premium. A one-way Mint seat from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles on Jan. 10 topped $3,000 and went as high as $4,522 while a basic coach ticket on that route was going for as little as $244.

The JetBlue executives told staff Wednesday that they know the Newark reductions raise questions about their plans at LaGuardia Airport, where JetBlue's one-time acquisition target, Spirit, operated out of the Marine Air Terminal until it shut down.

"Any future opportunities that could come from the LGA slot auction process remain uncertain and would take time to develop," they said. "We must make decisions based on the operation we know we will fly, not on potential outcomes that may or may not materialize in the future."

JetBlue executives have called out the high costs of operating at airports like LaGuardia.

"We are much, much smaller at LaGuardia than we were four years ago because it's a $40 [enplanement fee] airport for us. And the fountain is really pretty, but ... I think people would rather have low fares than a really nice fountain," St. George said at a JPMorgan industry conference in March, referring to the 25-foot-tall water feature in the airport's Terminal B.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates LaGuardia and Newark airports, did not immediately comment.