JetBlue, American, Delta move to add South Florida-Havana service

JetBlue Airways and Delta and American airlines are making pitches to Washington for a bigger slice of the U.S. to Havana aviation market as smaller rivals move to end service to the Cuban capital.

The three big carriers’ push for more Havana flights follows recent announcements by Spirit and Frontier airlines that they will stop flying to Havana from Fort Lauderdale and Miami on June 1 and June 4, respectively.

Silver Airways, a regional carrier based in Fort Lauderdale, said it planned to end service effective April 22 on eight non-Havana Cuba routes it served from Fort Lauderdale.

The smaller carriers cited multiple reasons for withdrawing, including overcapacity, heavy competition, the high cost of doing business in Cuba and lack of consumer demand. When Spirit and Frontier cease their Cuba service, only JetBlue, Southwest, American and Delta will remain in the game with nonstop flights from South Florida airports.

Industry observers predict the shuffle is unlikely to produce higher fares for consumers as there are still too many flights operating to the Communist island.

“I doubt fares will rise much only because of fewer airlines in the market,” said Seth Kaplan, managing editor of Airline Weekly. “Right now, the glut of seats in the marketplace suggests it’ll be hard to raise fares very much in the short term regardless of how many competitors there are.”

Vivian Mannerud, president and CEO of Airline Brokers Co. in Hialeah, a longtime seller of Cuba air charters that now sells tickets for regularly scheduled flights, expects that airfares will slowly increase over time or that airlines will continue to use smaller planes to control operating costs.

Kaplan said if the cancelled Cuba routes by Spirit, Frontier and Silver were not taken over by other airlines, fares could have risen substantially.

Prices from South Florida airports to Havana are generally running from about $100 for one-way flights or slightly above. When carriers started the service, at least one was offering introductory fares for as little $59 one-way.

Industry analysts say the spate of schedule changes and route cancellations is evidence that the U.S. carriers overestimated the demand for regular flights to Cuba following the restoration of U.S.-Cuba diplomatic relations in 2014. Consumer confusion or uncertainty over U.S. rules of travel to Cuba are acting as deterrents.

Currently, travel to Cuba from the United States is limited to 12 approved categories, such as educational and religious activities, family visits and humanitarian projects. A ban on leisure tourism to Cuba remains in force as part of the long-standing U.S.-imposed trade embargo against the island.

Analysts say the larger carriers have more staying power to weather the uncertainties.

“JetBlue, America and Delta are clearly playing a long game with Cuba,” Kaplan said. “They can better afford to do that than can Spirit, Frontier and Silver because they’re just much bigger airlines.”

In a recent application to the U.S. Department of Transportation, JetBlue said it’s seeking to boost service from Fort Lauderdale to Havana by six weekly frequencies.

That would mean increasing its current twice-daily service operating Sundays through Friday to three-times daily, and boosting once-daily Saturday flying to twice-daily, said JetBlue spokesman Philip Stewart, in an email Monday.

The New York-based carrier also wants to add once-weekly service between Boston and Havana on Saturdays only, the application showed.

If granted DOT approval, the additional Cuba service would begin on Nov. 1, JetBlue said.

“As less experienced airlines are eliminating routes, we have optimized our schedule and operation to balance long-term opportunities with the current developments in this important market,” said JetBlue in a statement. “We are assigning smaller aircraft to these routes and will continue to adjust as needed to ensure sustainable performance.”

The company said its Havana operation “is performing well against our expectations” and is seeing strength in its group travel business.

On Monday, American filed an application to the DOT for additional flights from Miami to Havana, as a contender for the daily service that Frontier intends to relinquish in June on the same route.

Delta filed last Friday.

In its application, Fort Worth-based American said it’s proposing to operate an additional daily nonstop flight between Miami and Havana by Oct. 5, using 160-seat Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Delta seeks to add a second daily year-round flight on the same Miami-to-Havana route by no later than Dec. 15.

Despite its Havana application, American and other large U.S. carriers have tweaked their Cuba schedules recently to better match consumer demand.

In February, for example, American began operating a reduced schedule of one daily flight between Miami and Holguin, Santa Clara and Varadero.

“Add it all up, and it’s probably still more of a niche destination for people who don’t mind a little bit of risk and uncertainty,” Kaplan said.