Vero Beach, which until two years ago had grown accustomed to having no dependable scheduled airline service from our local airport, was still reeling this week from the surprise news that its cup was about to runneth over.

JetBlue Airways, the country’s sixth largest airline, announced plans to go head-to-head against much smaller Breeze Airways with daily nonstop flights to New York and Boston from Vero Beach Regional airport.

“It happened so quickly, it caught us off-guard,” said Airport Director Todd Scher.  “I get an email one day. Two days later, they call and say they want to start operations here in December. The next morning, they made the announcement.”

By the weekend, JetBlue’s website was already accepting bookings on flights to and from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and Boston’s Logan International Airport starting Dec. 11, with introductory one-way fares as low as $69.

The New York and Boston routes will put the carrier in direct competition with Breeze Airways, which began service here in February 2023 and currently offers flights to the New York area via Islip, White Plains and Newburgh, and to the Boston area via Hartford and Providence.

“Now we’ve got to work out the logistics to see how we can accommodate a second airline with our limited capacity,” Scher said. “That might not be as easy as some might think.”

City Manager Monte Falls said the terminal at Vero Beach’s airport can’t comfortably accommodate more than 120 passengers at one time.

“Breeze’s jets have maximum capacity of 137 passengers, so when it’s a full flight, it gets pretty tight,” he said. “That brings us to another issue we need to address with JetBlue – scheduling their flights to avoid having their passengers and Breeze’s passengers in the airport at the same time.”

Scher said JetBlue will need to schedule their flights to ensure they take off and land at least one hour before or two hours after Breeze’s departures and arrivals.

“Breeze gets priority,” Falls said.

Asked last week if JetBlue representatives know they need to work around Breeze, the city manager replied: “I don’t know. We haven’t heard from them.”

Scher said it was too soon to predict whether the addition of JetBlue’s flights will significantly increase the number of commercial airline passengers at the airport, which could potentially impact funding from the state.

“Is JetBlue going to add passengers, or siphon off passengers from Breeze?” he asked. “I don’t know.”

Still, Scher said he notified Breeze representatives of JetBlue’s announcement Thursday morning.

“They’re aware of what’s happening, but they probably weren’t surprised,” he said. “It was just a matter of time before some other airline saw Breeze’s success here and decided to grab a piece of the pie.

“Airlines do that all the time.”

Breeze spokesperson Ryne Williams said the airline expects its Vero Beach success to continue, despite the arrival of JetBlue.

“Breeze has been the only airline to serve Vero Beach for more than two years and considers itself the hometown carrier for guests traveling to and from the area,” he said.

“Vero Beach is a popular choice for our guests, as well as our employees,” he added. “They love the convenient service we offer, and we look forward to continuing our service there are we grow.”

In addition to the Boston and New York markets, Breeze currently offers service to New Haven, Connecticut and Washington, D.C.  Breeze’s flights to Washington’s Dulles International Airport also continue on to Ogdensburg, New York, which is located  60 miles south of Ottawa, Canada’s capital city.

Both Falls and Scher made a point of mentioning the difference between dealing with JetBlue and Breeze, which visited the local airport and established a relationship with city officials before deciding to add Vero Beach to its route map.

“We met with the Breeze people many times before they came here,” Scher said. “When we negotiated with them about expanding their service to Vero Beach, we talked them for months and had a good feel for what they wanted to do.”

In contrast, Scher said he learned JetBlue had made its announcement only after someone alerted him to a story in an online industry publication.

“Over the past year or so, Todd has been contacted by several carriers interested in our airport,” Falls said. “JetBlue wasn’t one of them.”

That means city officials and JetBlue representatives need to work quickly to clear the runway for a second carrier in Vero Beach.

“For JetBlue to come here, they need to abide by out rates-and-fees resolution and become an approved carrier,” Falls said. “We haven’t talked money with them yet, but you can be sure we’ll have that discussion before the end of the month.”

Mayor John Cotugno said impending arrival of a second commercial carrier in Vero Beach bodes well for the city’s brand.

“It’s no secret that we’ve been discovered,” he said. “More and more people know about Vero Beach, and when they come here, they quickly understand what makes this community so special.”