The Connecticut Airport Authority (CAA) announced Bradley International Airport will add routes to four major cities via carrier JetBlue.
New JetBlue routes will run nonstop between Bradley and Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Cancún, Mexico, according to CAA, which oversees Bradley.
“Naturally this is great news for Bradley Airport,” CAA Executive Director Kevin Dillon said in an interview Wednesday morning. “While we continue to sustain a substantial drop in business, I’m hopeful that this will spark business at the airport.”
Service to Cancún is scheduled to start Nov. 18 and flights to LA, San Francisco and Vegas are slated to commence Dec. 18.
The new routes are a win for Bradley, which has experienced the same cataclysmic drop in passenger traffic since COVID-19 began battering the industry in March and April.
Airport traffic reached its nadir in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, dropping off by about 95% when compared to the same period last year. That’s improved slightly, to where Bradley is serving about 75% to 80% fewer passengers than they’d expect during the same time in a normal year, Dillon said.
Dillon previously said Gov. Ned Lamont’s travel restrictions — which required travelers from most U.S. states and territories to quarantine for 14 days upon arriving in Connecticut — appeared to be negatively affecting traffic. However, Lamont has since removed six states from the restricted list, including California, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada and Ohio.
Revenue is down, too. Between April and June, Bradley’s operating revenues were $10 million below budget, according to CAA figures.
