JetBlue Boosts South American Base With Flights To Guayaquil

JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ:JBLU) recently began service to Guayaquil, Ecuador from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. This marks the carrier’s sixth destination in South America.

JetBlue’s newly initiated service operates daily. The carrier is operating on the new route via an Airbus A320 aircraft with comfortable seating, extra legroom in coach, entertainment facilities and several other modern amenities.

The carrier’s previous service to Quito, Ecuador from Fort Lauderdale in 2016 was successful. Thus, on account of customer demand, the carrier decided to add a seasonal daily flight to Quito, beginning this summer. Notably, the airline already operates a daily service on this route.

Apart from stretching across Ecuador and South America on the whole, the new flights enable JetBlue to broaden its base in Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood. In the coming years, the carrier aims to operate 140 daily flights in the region, one of its fastest-growing focus cities.

Earlier this February, the carrier announced plans to expand into Boston, adding flights connecting Logan International Airport (BOS) with 12 of its routes along the eastern half of the United States. JetBlue will start introducing these daily flights this summer onward. (Read more: JetBlue to Expand Flight Services in Boston and Eastern U.S.)

Zacks Rank & Other Key Picks

JetBlue carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Some other top-ranked stocks in the same space are Azul (NYSE:AZUL) , Air China Ltd. (OTC:AIRYY) and SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Shares of Azul and Air China have rallied more than 79% and 19%, respectively, in the past six months. Meanwhile, the SkyWest stock flaunts a stellar earnings history, having outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the previous four reported quarters, the average being 16.9%.

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