JetBlue Airways Corp. said Tuesday it will use new 100-seat jets to begin up to 10 daily flights between New York and Boston, taking on competitors in a long-established air shuttle service on the same route.
New York-based JetBlue also said it would use the Embraer 190 planes to start flying from New York’s JFK International Airport to Austin, Texas; Nassau, Bahamas; Richmond, Virginia; and West Palm Beach, Florida.
The Boston-New York route will make JetBlue a direct competitor of the traditional air shuttle service flown by bankrupt Delta Air Lines Inc. and by US Airways Group Inc. , which recently emerged from bankruptcy.
JetBlue will offer introductory fares of $25 each way on what will be up to 10 flights between the cities, with fares later settling at between $40 and $120 each way, undercutting the established shuttle.
JetBlue has ordered 99 of the Brazilian-made Embraer jets through 2016 in what some analysts have called a risky change from most discount airlines’ practice of flying a single aircraft type to minimize training and maintenance costs.
JetBlue is also still taking deliveries of its main, larger, aircraft type, the Airbus A320.
