Last week, Southwest said it would increase its daily service to Baltimore from five to seven flights a day. Now, JetBlue will be adding a fifth flight to the route, which it has been flying since September.
Could this move be a response to Southwest? Well, the press release certainly makes it sound that way!
“Customers in Baltimore have discovered what those in Boston have known for years: JetBlue offers more than just an unassigned seat and a handful of peanuts to their destination,” said Scott Laurence, vice president of network planning for JetBlue Airways.
The move seems to make sense from a scheduling perspective, as it appears that the aircraft flying the new flights would have just been sitting overnight in Boston anyway – the new BOS-BWI flight is the last of the day, and the new BWI-BOS flight is the first departure of the day. The route will continue to be operated exclusively by E190 aircraft.
Unfortunately, JetBlue only started the route in September so one cannot see how loads have been thus far. But clearly JetBlue has been protective of its hub now that Southwest has entered. Boston, however, remains to be Southwest’s smallest city in New England, though if a couple of more flights are added it will pass Hartford.
So now AirTran will have nine frequencies, Southwest seven, and JetBlue five. I can understand why Delta just decided to abandon this route! 
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