JetBlue makes a drastic move as customer behavior shifts | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

With the uncertainty of President Donald Trump’s tariffs casting a shadow over the year to come, many consumers have felt uncomfortable about the idea of unnecessary spending.

Proof of this shift in behavior has shown up across several sectors in the last few months.

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Retail’s hit didn’t register at first, as many consumers stocked up on goods in advance of the end of Trump’s 90-day tariff pause. But in May, the shift came in loud and clear, with the largest decline in a four-month period reported by the Commerce Department on June 17.

The automotive industry is also looking at a bleak year to come. U.S. and Canada auto sales could take a steep drop this year if the trade war continues, declining by 1.8 million vehicles this year alone, Detroit automotive advisory firm Telemetry exclusively told Reuters in April.

Considering that people are pulling back on both retail and automotive purchases, it should come as no surprise that vacation plans are taking a back burner, too.

U.S. travel has dropped in the past 90 days in comparison to the same period in 2024, according to data from the Transportation Security Administration — and it’s the biggest drop since Covid.

Now premier airline JetBlue is making some big changes in reaction to dwindling consumer demand, and it may make flying with them much harder for some consumers.

JetBlue has big changes coming down the pipeline.

Image source&colon; JetBlue Airlines

JetBlue CEO announces major changes

JetBlue Airways CEO Joanna Geraghty let staff know on June 16 that the carrier is making necessary cost cuts to cope with the current environment, CNBC reports.

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Geraghty said the reduced demand makes it unlikely that JetBlue can break even on its operating margins this year.

“We’re hopeful demand and bookings will rebound, but even a recovery won’t fully offset the ground we’ve lost this year, and our path back to profitability will take longer than we’d hoped. That means we’re still relying on borrowed cash to keep the airline running,” the note reads.

JetBlue plans to cut flights outside of peak times and eliminate routes that are not profitable. It’s also reevaluating hiring plans, planning to rein in travel spending, and combine some leadership roles in an effort to cut costs.

The memo also said JetBlue will press pause on plans to revamp the interiors of four of its Airbus A320 jets.

Airlines cope with customer pullback due to tariffs

JetBlue is not the only airline to speak out or make changes in response to the trade war.

Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan said the airline has been “highly impacted on the demand side by the tariffs and then just the consumer confidence erosion,” in an interview with Yahoo Finance.

Southwest had already struggled since before the trade war and recently cut its longstanding Skycap service, as well as announcing it would begin to charge customers for checked bags, a perk that’s been free for the past 60 years.

Spirit Airlines has also warned it may have to cancel Airbus orders, as it’s particularly vulnerable to the effects of the trade wars, having just emerged from Chapter 11 restructuring.

Spirit has scheduled a total of 92 Airbus A320-family aircraft through 2031. As the jets cost $110 million, a 10% tariffs would boost Spirit’s spend by $1 billion — not the kind of money a freshly restructured company is looking to spend.