JetBlue to begin flights to Nantucket in spring

JetBlue's coming to Nantucket -- and it's also making a deal to fly thousands more people to and from the rest of the Cape and islands .

Unveiling a pair of new services yesterday, JetBlue Airways Corp. said it will begin offering daily round-trips between New York and Nantucket from May 24 to Sept. 24. In July and August, JetBlue will add second flights on Friday nights, Saturday mornings, and Monday mornings aimed at serving New Yorkers coming up for a weekend visit. Service will be on 100-seat jets, and fares will range from $178 to $558 round-trip.

Separately, after 11 months of negotiations, JetBlue has made a "code share" partnership with Cape Air of Hyannis that will allow people to buy tickets through JetBlue.com to combine service on both airlines, connecting through Logan International Airport, starting March 18.

Passengers may save $80 or more over the price of separate tickets, airline officials said, and will enjoy easier security and baggage procedures making connections through Logan's Terminal C, where the carriers have adjoining gates.

Airline and tourism officials expect the moves will attract tens of thousands of more visitors to the Cape and islands over the summer, particularly Nantucket, whose year-round population of 9,000 already swells to more than 50,000 many summer weekends, with up to one-third of its visitors New Yorkers.

"It opens up the Cape and islands to the JetBlue universe, and it opens the JetBlue universe to the Cape and islands," said Dan Wolf , who is president of Cape Air and also, on summer weekends, a pilot at the controls of one of its nine-seat turboprop planes. JetBlue flies nonstop between Boston and more than 20 destinations.

Wendy Northcross , chief executive of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau , said the "increased ease of access to our region with one-stop booking will open tremendous opportunities."

Besides Cape Air and sister carrier Nantucket Airlines, which are both owned by Hyannis Air Service Inc. , Nantucket Memorial Airport also has year-round service from New York's LaGuardia airport on US Airways Express and summer flights from Logan and Newark Liberty International Airport on affiliates of Continental Airlines Inc. and US Airways Group.

The JetBlue flight to Nantucket is scheduled to leave John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, at 5:30 p.m., land at Nantucket at 6:55 p.m., then head back to JFK at 7:30 p.m. To serve weekend traffic during July and August, JetBlue will add second flights to Nantucket later Friday night and on Saturday morning, and flights back to New York Saturday and Monday mornings. Some $98 promotional fares during non peak weekends will be available.

The code-share deal will also make travel easier for passengers with checked luggage connecting in Boston. Instead of having to get their bags from the carousel and go back through security, passengers combining flights through Logan on the two carriers will walk from gate to gate inside Terminal C as workers transfer bags between airlines.

JetBlue chief executive David Neeleman said he's working on adding a similar code-share deal with Cape Air in Florida and the Caribbean, where the Cape-based carrier offers extensive service during cold-weather months with planes from Massachusetts.

Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com.