JetBlue to temporarily add daily round-trip flight from MacArthur Airport to Fort Lauderdale

JetBlue plans to temporarily add a daily round-trip flight in early spring between Long Island MacArthur Airport and Fort Lauderdale, the Long Island City-based carrier and Islip Town officials said Friday.

In an email, JetBlue said the added flight at the Ronkonkoma airport would be available for one month, from March 31 to April 29, excluding April 13.

Islip Town spokesperson Caroline Smith said the additional flights aim "to take advantage of the end-of-winter travel season."

JetBlue currently offers four round-trip flights weekly between Islip Town-owned MacArthur and Fort Lauderdale, Newsday previously reported.

The carrier said the service will be added "to best align with strong demand in the month."

The round-trip flight will provide customers "more options to reach one of the East Coast’s leading spring break destinations. These additional flights will be available for purchase by the end of the weekend," the company said in an email.

In mid-January, JetBlue announced plans to offer summer service between MacArthur and Boston's Logan Airport. Those flights start in May and will end in October, officials announced.

Such temporary flight schedules are not unusual as national carriers become "more agile," adjusting to fluctuations in travel patterns throughout the year, said Port Washington aviation consultant Robert Mann.

Travel habits reflect factors such as school schedules and weather, Mann said.

“The industry as a whole is getting more opportunistic," he said, adding JetBlue can use spare staff and aircraft to offer additional service at MacArthur.

“Instead of applying it to LaGuardia or JFK, it makes sense to apply it to Islip,” Mann said.

In addition to Fort Lauderdale and Boston, JetBlue offers flights to and from Orlando and Palm Beach.

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.