Starting this spring, JetBlue Airways will offer daily nonstop service between Long Island MacArthur Airport and Boston for $49 each way. Credit: Anthony Florio

JetBlue Airways Corp. will offer daily nonstop service between Long Island MacArthur Airport and Boston during the summer months, Islip Town and airline officials announced Wednesday.

The summer seasonal service will start April 30 at $49 each way, with outbound flights at 6 a.m. and return flights at 9:08 p.m. The service will run until Oct. 25, according to the airline.

It’s the first addition to the carrier’s menu of destinations from the Ronkonkoma airport since JetBlue launched services to Florida from Islip in October.

The airline currently offers daily service between Islip and Orlando, Florida, and four round-trip flights weekly between MacArthur and both Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach.

MacArthur Airport Commissioner Shelley LaRose-Arken pointed out that JetBlue offers connecting services from Boston to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas — supplementing options to reach the destinations from Islip, which doesn’t offer direct flights to the cities.

Boston also marks the airport's 17th nonstop destination, LaRose-Arken said, more than doubling the seven available from MacArthur in 2015.

"The fact that we've got a flight going north now is really groundbreaking for us because most of the other destinations have been south," Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter said at a Wednesday morning news event announcing the new destination.

JetBlue service out of MacArthur "became profitable faster than any other airport," she added, citing airline officials.

Long Island economists have said the region has “untapped propensity to travel,” with a high population and wealthy customer base.

Around 1.36 million passengers arrived at and departed from MacArthur Airport last year, according to federal statistics, an increase from around 1.2 million in 2023.

Matt Cohen, president and CEO of the Long Island Association, a nonprofit business organization, said in a statement that the “new destination reinforces MacArthur Airport as a regional asset for all Long Island.”

“The growth, development and travel opportunities resulting from our thriving airport stimulates the Long Island economy,” he said.

JetBlue has pursued routes out of Islip despite recent financial struggles. The airline posted a $60 million net loss for the third quarter of 2024, according to an earnings release.

In the same report, company officials noted a renewed focus on the Northeast, dropping 15 airports and more than 50 routes, to redeploy aircraft to “leisure-focused routes” from the region.

The airline earlier this month also ran into trouble with the U.S. Department of Transportation when the agency slapped JetBlue with a $2 million penalty for chronic flight delays, which are prohibited under DOT rules. 

The department is investigating other airlines for unrealistic flight schedules as well.

On Wednesday, JetBlue also announced multiple other routes from Boston, and Kennedy and Newark Liberty International airports, that would launch this summer. 

The airline plans to resume daily service from Kennedy Airport to Washington, D.C., starting March 30, and launch daily flights from the Queens airport to Detroit, Hartford, Pittsburgh and Providence, Rhode Island, on April 30.

Summer seasonal routes from Kennedy will include daily flights to Burbank, California, and San Pedro Sula, Honduras, starting April 30 and June 12 respectively. 

JetBlue also plans to resume summer seasonal services from Newark Liberty airport to Los Angeles and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, April 30 and June 12 respectively. 

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