By Philip Newman
“It's hard to believe it's been five years since we first flew to Buffalo and Fort Lauderdale from John F. Kennedy International airport,” said David Neeleman, JetBlue chief executive officer and founder. “And now we serve Buffalo with seven daily flights to JFK and as many as two dozen flights a day between Fort Lauderdale and JFK and LaGuardia airports.”To observe the occasion, Neeleman and Dave Barger, JetBlue president, hosted an event for JetBlue crew members and customers to greet the arrival of the new jetliner. The airline also gave away 500 tickets to throughout New York City's five boroughs to support City Harvest. Ticket seekers were required to dress as their favorite JetBlue destination and bring canned goods for the charity.JetBlue operates 276 flights a day and serves 30 destinations in 12 states, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas.JetBlue plans to lease Terminal C in Pier C of Boston's Logan International Airport and to add more gates at the facility every six months over the next three years. The airline at present occupies two gates at Logan Terminal E.JetBlue offers 19 daily flights from Logan with nonstop flights to Oakland, Long Beach, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, Fort Myers and Orlando, Fla. The carrier plans to add new daily nonstop service from Boston to Ls Vegas and San Jose, Calif. May 3.JetBlue also announced that its January traffic increased 32.6 percent over January 2004 on a capacity increase of 23.8 percent.
