Route watch: JetBlue goes deeper into Colombia, easyJet adds Cagliari from Gatwick

This week’s new routes from JetBlue and easyJet show two very different ways of growing a network.

JetBlue: Cali becomes the fourth Colombian city

JetBlue has launched a daily nonstop flight between Fort Lauderdale and Cali, operated with an Airbus A320. Cali joins Cartagena, Medellín, and Barranquilla; the last was added from Fort Lauderdale earlier this month. Latin America and the Caribbean account for about a third of JetBlue’s capacity.

The route is part of a much larger build-up at Fort Lauderdale, JetBlue’s first destination. Since December 2025, the airline has added 12 nonstop destinations there and increased daily departures by more than 75 per cent. It now offers more flights and destinations from the airport than any other carrier, and expects more than 150 daily peak departures this winter, its largest schedule ever at FLL.

easyJet: five more UK routes for summer 2027

easyJet has put five more UK routes on sale for next summer, on top of the 18 announced in September:

• Southampton-Edinburgh, daily from 28 March
• Southampton-Malaga, twice weekly from 1 May
• Southampton-La Rochelle, twice weekly from 29 May
• London Gatwick-Cagliari, three times weekly from 1 June
• London Luton-Rennes, twice weekly from 1 July

Southampton gets three of the five, including a domestic link to Edinburgh. For the Italian market, Gatwick-Cagliari adds another UK gateway to Sardinia.

Why it matters

Neither announcement is large on its own. Both, though, show how each airline is choosing to grow: JetBlue by concentrating capacity at a focus city and building depth in one foreign market, easyJet by spreading thinner routes across secondary UK airports and leisure destinations. These are two very different bets on where the next passenger will come from.

The launch marketing follows the same split. JetBlue sells Cali with destination storytelling as the “Salsa Capital of the World” and offers launch fares of $139 only on jetblue.com, using the new route to drive bookings to its direct channel. easyJet leads with price anchors from £32.48 and pairs the routes immediately with easyJet holidays packages, so each new destination also becomes something to sell as a holiday.