American Airlines, JetBlue expand East Coast network

American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) and JetBlue Airways (B6, New York JFK) have announced a significant expansion of their networks with 33 new routes from airports on the US East Coast under their extensive code-share partnership due to operationally launch on February 25, 2021. The airlines said that their code-share partnership will initially include nearly 80 routes from all four eastern coast gateways, although more routes will be gradually added to the agreement. Besides expanding their respective networks, the carriers will also seek to increase frequencies and better align the schedules on key domestic routes. Meanwhile, United Airlines (UA, Chicago O’Hare) has announced a plan to launch a new route from Boston to London Heathrow at some point in 2021, subject to market recovery and pandemic-related border restrictions. The carrier hopes to connect the two cities daily using B767-300(ER)s. JetBlue plans to begin services to London Gatwick from JFK and to London Stansted from Boston in 2021 as well, using A321-200NX(LR)s.