JetBlue's Sudden Pullout Leaves Locals and Diaspora Wondering about Government’s Silence and US visa Connections

The news of Jet Blue's pullout from Antigua and Barbuda has left locals surprised and members of the Diaspora confused.

Today, July 17, JetBlue advised travelers that it would be phasing out operations here in order to restructure its network and expand its operations in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The last flight scheduled for Antigua will take place on September 9, according to online sources, while other reports say all operations will be phased out by October 31.

Some residents are asking why the public was not apprised of this development by Minister of Tourism Charles “Max” Fernandez or by the management of the Tourism Authority, as they are “convinced they knew this was coming.”

One person recalls the big hoopla by the authorities when JetBlue began flying here from New York’s JFK International in November 2015 and is now suspicious about its “rather quiet” exit from this destination.

Meanwhile, nationals living in the United States are saying “there must be something deeper” than the reason given for the pullout: that Antigua and Barbuda is an underperforming route.  

They point to the fact that service has not been pulled from next-door St. Kitts, Barbados, St. Maarten, Grenada, or St. Vincent & The Grenadines.

A national living in the Southern United States notes that it “would make sense” for the airline to continue servicing Antigua and Barbuda out of its Fort Lauderdale hub, as many nationals are already accustomed to flying home via Florida on American Airlines.

Meanwhile, online sources confirm, JetBlue already operates daily flights out of Fort Lauderdale to St. Maarten and a regular flight to Jamaica out of Miami.

Therefore, the man says, he cannot help wondering if the carrier and the Browne Administration have had a fallout.

He believes that flights to this destination have been affected not only by the US visa restrictions being experienced by local citizens since January, but by the actual fear of Antiguans and Barbudans who live in the United States because of the ICE detentions and new anti-immigrant policies.

Some locals agree that these realities would have lessened the flight loads coming out of the USA, but they also suspect the carrier’s pullout – just ahead of the winter tourist season – could be “punishment” for Antigua and Barbuda’s delay in completing the third-country-national deportees deal with the Government of the United States.