Costly fuel will scrub JetBlue LA-to-Hub flights
Good morning, travelers. While you were sleeping, oil prices went off without you and hit a record $120.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
And JetBlue decided to call off, at least for now, plans to start flying between LA and Boston and New York because of - let's say it all together - the high cost of jet fuel.
The discounter said in February it would launch service May 21 at LAX with one daily flight to Logan and three to JFK. But Bryan Baldwin at JetBlue said that the discounter decided that high fuel costs made the move too pricey.
The LA Times, which first broke the story, talked to an unnamed JetBlue official who illustrated the conundrum with this bit of math: Last year it cost $9,600 to fill up a JetBlue Airbus A320 for a transcontinental flight and now it's $15,000.
I myself just shelled out $45 to fill my Subaru on Morrissey. Life is tough. And for travelers prospects for the summer travel season are looking expensive.
(By Paul S. Makishima, Globe staff)
