JetBlue Airways has secured slots at Heathrow International Airport for when it debuts its service to London later this year, according to an article by Zach Griff written for the aviation blog The Points Guy.
The carrier has received a total of 270 slots so far according to Airport Coordination Limited, the company that coordinates slots, or gates, at Heathrow. Of those 270, 180 are earmarked for flights to and from New York’s John F. Kennedy International and 90 will fly between Heathrow and Boston-Logan.
However, JetBlue has also been allocated 270 slots at London-Gatwick Airport so it is unknown whether the slots at Heathrow are permanent or not.
And the airline isn’t tipping its hand.
In a statement to The Points Guy, JetBlue said: “We can’t wait to launch transatlantic service later this year and love all the enthusiasm and speculation for where JetBlue will touch down. We can only expect this speculation will increase as we get closer to an announcement, and we won’t comment on our specific plans until we have made a final decision on our initial London airport. We have always said that we have a viable path into more than one London airport and that over the long term we expect to serve multiple airports in London – just as we do in New York, Los Angeles, South Florida, and Washington, D.C. JetBlue has applied for multiple slots at various airports and we are discussing the availability of various permanent and temporary slots with the slot coordinators. Those discussions are continuing and we will evaluate what each London airport is proposing before making a final decision that best supports our transatlantic strategy.”
Two of London’s three major airports, Gatwick and Stansted, are farther from the city center than Heathrow.
The Points Guy noted that JetBlue did receive 14 slots at Heathrow beginning the week of Aug. 2, so that could be a potential start date for the transatlantic routes.
