JetBlue Embraer 190 named “Rhapsody In Blue”
Ever since 2000, JetBlue planes have been flying out of the Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport and now there will be more of them in the skies above Broward County as the airline continues to beef up their schedule at FLL. JetBlue currently offers daily flights to twenty-six destinations across their network and plans to begin flights to Montego Bay, Punta Cana, Port of Spain, and Pittsburgh this year. The airline currently offers one daily flight to Ft. Lauderdale from Worcester using their 100-seat Embraer 190 aircraft.
The airline has plans to fly up to one hundred daily nonstop flights into Ft. Lauderdale beginning in 2017. According a JetBlue source at FLL, the plan is to be around sixty-two departures this summer and seventy-five by the end of the year. Several renovations are also in the works including a new lobby for Terminal 3, a rehabilitation of Terminal 4 to add international capacity to allow for expansion, and the gate areas will see a facelift by the time 2017 rolls around.
JetBlue, however, is not the only airline rapidly expanding at FLL, Southwest Airlines has big plans to operate an international gateway from the airport with about twenty-five daily international departures from a new international concourse they plan to build off of the existing Terminal 1. Spirit Airlines, the third largest carrier at FLL, boasts forty-three nonstop destinations from the airport with twenty-three of those routes being to international destinations. There have been unconfirmed rumors, however, that Spirit is planning to move a significant portion of their operations from FLL to Miami International Airport in Miami-Dade County.
Currently, the biggest project at FLL is the expansion of the south runway from a length of 5276 feet to 8000 feet. The runway will be supported by concrete pillars over the highway on the east end and will be widened from 100 feet to 150 feet. This project is set to be completed by September and will improve the flow of air traffic into and out of Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport.
