As many airlines do occasionally, New York-based carrier JetBlue Airways recently took a deep dive into its route network and decided to eliminate 27 routes from its network.

Most of the cuts are on routes that were added during the pandemic, a development that comes as JetBlue begins seeing “more expected booking patterns.”

JetBlue said in a statement, “With travelers returning to the skies, we’re getting a clearer picture of where demand is strongest. JetBlue-operated flying (as measured by available seat miles [ASMs]) is expected to increase by 3 percent over 2019 in October and includes some 40 new routes set to launch in the coming months – many enabled by our successful Northeast Alliance with American Airlines.”

Starting this fall, the carrier plans to adjust their flying on some of the routes that were launched in the pandemic, to re-deploy those aircraft into its focus city growth.

The 27 routes that will be cut are:
– Austin to Orlando, Raleigh-Durham and San Francisco.
– Boston to Burbank and San Jose.
– Los Angeles to Seattle.
– Orlando to Atlanta, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham, San Francisco and Bogota, Colombia.
– Philadelphia to Fort Myers and Tampa.
– Pittsburgh to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
– Raleigh-Durham to Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Las Vegas, Montego Bay, San Francisco and Tampa.
– Richmond to Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
– Tampa to Washington National.
– West Palm Beach to Chicago and Philadelphia.

The move to remove flights to Austin comes only days after its newest partner, American Airlines revealed plans of a major expansion in the city, with 14 new domestic and international routes that will launch in the coming months.

Breeze Airways, America’s newest airline, launched last month with its first tranche of routes to Pittsburgh. This has contributed to JetBlue Airlines’ decision to cut its Pittsburgh route as competition heats up.

Although leisure travel is still likely to remain core to JetBlue’s network strategy, the airline will not be chasing that demand in the same way as it did during the pandemic, when it had spare planes and crews available.

JetBlue commented that as its customers return to more predictable booking patterns, the carrier is looking at how it can adjust its schedule and focus on continuing growth that will further the airline’s network strategy.