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JetBlue To Travel Nonstop Between Tampa, Cancun

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By TED JACKOVICS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 15, 2008

TAMPA - JetBlue Airways will inaugurate nonstop daily flights between Tampa International Airport and Cancun, Mexico, on Dec. 18 with $99 one-way fares.

That price does not include taxes and fees, which add an additional $41 to outbound flights and $51 to inbound flights, with the extra $10 a U.S. tax.

JetBlue will fly 100-seat Embraer 190 aircraft on the route. It will be the only Tampa-Mexico service and the first daily flights between Cancun and Tampa since 2000, when Northwest Airlines stopped its Tampa-Cancun service.

"We are expanding and shifting our capacity in the fall and winter into Caribbean markets," said Sebastian White, a JetBlue spokesman in New York. "It is interesting that Tampa and Cancun are on the Gulf of Mexico, but you had to backtrack to fly between them."

White expects the flights to serve leisure traffic predominantly, and most of it would originate from Tampa. That's the customary pattern for flights serving Cancun, he said.

The outbound flight will depart Tampa at 9:45 a.m., arriving in Cancun at 10:45 a.m. CDT. The return flight will depart Cancun at 11:40 a.m. CDT and arrive in Tampa at 2:35 p.m. The Embraer 190s used for the Tampa-Mexico flights will also be used for JetBlue's Tampa-Boston flights.

"The new Cancun service will be very well-received, and the timing is perfect," Tampa International director Louis Miller said. "In addition, with JetBlue adding White Plains, N.Y., from Tampa beginning Nov. 2, it is a very good indication that they believe there are additional growth opportunities to fly to underserved markets."

"That is great news," said Robert Escobar, senior executive search consultant for CE Insurance Services, headquartered in Tampa. "Let's hope this time the passenger traffic will justify the continuation of the route."

US Airways flew between the two cities in the 1990s before Northwest Airlines began service.

Local business officials have called for increased international service from Tampa, particularly to Latin American business destinations. But airline officials have contended there has not been sufficient demand for more international traffic.

AirTran Airways and Spirit Airlines applied for the right to serve Cancun from Tampa in recent years, but AirTran never got started. As for Spirit, Hurricane Wilma damaged many of the hotels in Cancun in 2005, forcing the airline to change its plans. Spirit eventually flew a weekly flight between Tampa and Cancun, but only for a few months.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at tjackovics@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7817.

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