Emirates suspends flights to Fort Lauderdale, base of partner JetBlue
Emirates Airline is indefinitely suspending service to Fort Lauderdale amid the drop in international travel during the coronavirus pandemic.
The carrier has pulled all flights to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) through at least July 2021, according to Cirium schedules. The South Florida airport is the only one of Emirates' 12 U.S. destinations where flights are not scheduled to resume this fall.
Emirates spokesperson Nick Schweers told TPG that the airline hopes to "restart our operations when it is commercially and operationally feasible to do so." He did not provide a timeline.
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With a business reliant entirely on international travel, Dubai-based Emirates has been hit hard by the myriad of travel restrictions in nearly every country around the world. The carrier only plans to fly about 20% of what it flew in 2019 during August, Cirium data shows.
Emirates has resumed U.S. flights to Boston (BOS), Chicago O'Hare (ORD), Los Angeles (LAX), New York John F. Kennedy (JFK) and Washington Dulles (IAD) after suspending all flights in March. Houston Bush Intercontinental (IAH) will join the list on Aug. 23.
Service to Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), Newark (EWR), Orlando (MCO), San Francisco (SFO) and Seattle (SEA) remains suspended and the carrier has not given a firm schedule on when flights in those cities might resume.
Related: Emirates will resume service to 20 cities by mid-June
Fort Lauderdale is a focus city for Emirates' partner JetBlue Airways. Emirates flyers could connect to JetBlue flights to 39 cities over the South Florida airport and vice versa for JetBlue travelers, according to Cirium.
Emirates and JetBlue continue to connect flyers to each others flights in Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and New York JFK.
Airline Route first reported the suspension of Emirates' Fort Lauderdale route.
Related: Emirates will soon require 2 coronavirus tests for select US flyers
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