JetBlue Airlines cancels plans to fly to major tourist destination | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

JetBlue Airlines has not exactly been doing great business lately.

The airline has not been profitable since 2019, and it reported a net loss of $104 million in 2024, which wasn’t so bad when you compared it to the net loss of $310 million the year prior.

This coming year isn’t looking too great for the airline, either.

💵💰Don’t miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet’s free daily newsletter 💰💵

CEO Joanna Geraghty wrote a memo to internal airline staff last month, warning that 2025 was most likely not going to be a profitable year, stating, “We’re hopeful demand and bookings will rebound, but even a recovery won’t fully offset the ground we’ve lost this year. Our path back to profitability will take longer than we’d hoped.”

With the airline relying on borrowed cash to remain operational, it may come as no surprise that it’s cutting service instead of increasing it. Still, the airline long had a plan in the works to travel to a very popular tourist destination.

Now, flyers will be disappointed to learn that the plan is likely off the table.

JetBlue not only won’t be adding service to the area, but it has also ended its only practical link to the destination that gave the airline’s fans a chance to fly there and still take advantage of its loyalty program.

Here’s what happened and why it has left some travelers so disappointed.

JetBlue won’t be flying this plan to a key tourist hotspot.

Image source&colon; Shutterstock

JetBlue teased plans to fly here for years, but those plans are off the table

JetBlue’s aborted plans focused on flying to a U.S. tourist destination where there really aren’t a ton of options: Hawaii.

Beat Hawaii reported on JetBlue’s failed Hawaii dreams recently, indicating that the carrier had been publicly hinting at plans to add Hawaii to its flight lineup starting as early as 2009.

There was plenty of evidence the plan was in the works, with the airline confirming it could fly to the islands and adding more long-range planes to its fleet.

JetBlue also wrote to the DOJ in a 20-page document related to its proposed merger with Spirit Airlines that “A larger JetBlue with access to additional Terminal 5 gates will be able to add even more routes from Los Angeles including Hawaii flying and additional leisure service.”

However, the DOJ blocked the merger between the two airlines based on antitrust concerns, leaving JetBlue without a clear path to growing its West Coast presence or initiating those long-planned Hawaii flights out of key West Coast hubs.

The end of a JetBlue partnership means all ties to Hawaii are severed

JetBlue’s recent moves have made it very clear that a JetBlue Hawaii flight is almost certainly off the table, at least for the foreseeable future. The airline not only significantly cut flights to Los Angeles, but also dropped many routes to other cities West of the Mississippi.

On June 30, 2025, JetBlue also ended its partnership with Hawaii Airlines, cutting off the ability for JetBlue TrueBlue members to access the islands while still earning loyalty points, and even being able to redeem those points on some flights that had connecting itineraries via the mainland.

There are now no more options for JetBlue fans to take a flight to Hawaii on a partner airline, and while a new partnership with United Airlines might provide some limited connectivity, Beat Hawaii believes there is little incentive for United to route passengers through JetBlue when United’s own flights to Hawaii are already so limited and JetBlue doesn’t directly serve Hawaii, anyway.

More on travel:

East Coast travelers who were hoping to expand their options for Hawaii flights are likely to be especially disappointed by the abandoned plans, but as Beat Hawaii also made clear, JetBlue isn’t the first airline to hint at adding flights to this popular destination but fail to follow through.