JetBlue has announced it will launch brand-new nonstop flights from five U.S. cities to the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico from 2026, with fares starting from $99 one-way.
The Philadelphia flights will be daily, while the Jacksonville and Buffalo services will operate Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays; the Norfolk flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays; and the Richmond services will be three times a week — on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
The move significantly expands travel options for Americans heading to Puerto Rico, who can also fly nonstop to the island with six other U.S. carriers: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Southwest, Frontier and Spirit.
However, the new JetBlue routes cement the New York-based carrier as the island’s largest airline and will bring the number of destinations it serves nonstop from San Juan to 22, with more than 40 daily departures next spring.
“Puerto Rico has shaped JetBlue’s identity for more than two decades,” said Marty St. George, JetBlue’s president, in a statement.
“Our newest routes only deepen our commitment to the island and the communities that have been part of JetBlue’s story since 2002. We’re proud to continue investing in Puerto Rico and creating more travel opportunities for customers across our growing network.”
Puerto Rico boasts famously flour-soft stretches of sand, with Flamenco Beach in Culebra one of the contenders for the title of best beach on the island. Here, turquoise water laps onto powdery white grains that arc around a horseshoe bay.
Luquillo Beach, with the El Yunque rainforest as a backdrop, and Playa Crash Boat, which offers sensational snorkeling in gin-clear waters are also well worth a $99 airfare.
An otherworldly swim in the bioluminescent waters of Mosquito Bay also comes highly recommended, and so too does a wander around the evocative, ancient streets of Old San Juan, which thread past postcard-worthy pastel-colored facades, wrought-iron balconies and storied forts steeped in Spanish-Caribbean history.
There are also agri-tourism and farm-to-table experiences to enjoy, such as touring the family-run Frutos del Guacabo and sitting down to a brunch made with its home-grown ingredients, as well as visiting Finca Artesanal in Río Grande, where ecological agroforestry practices are proudly demonstrated.
The routes announcement follows the news that JetBlue has updated most of its 6,000 A320 passenger jets to fix a flight-control software glitch caused by intense solar radiation.
The problem is suspected of contributing to a sudden drop in altitude of a JetBlue plane from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey, on October 30 that injured at least 15 passengers, some of them transported to hospitals for medical care.