JetBlue Touts Disruption in Its European Expansion. Is It Actually Changing Things?

JetBlue Airways has named Amsterdam as its third European destination with flights due to begin later this summer. The Dutch city will join London and, beginning in June, Paris on the airline's growing transatlantic map.

The New York-based carrier will initially connect Amsterdam Schiphol to New York JFK. It plans to add a flight to Boston Logan at a later date. Both routes will be flown with Airbus A321LR aircraft outfitted with 24 Mint business class and 114 economy seats. The addition of Amsterdam follows a successful complaint to the U.S. Department of Transportation in February over access to the Schiphol airport under the U.S.-EU open-skies agreement.

JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes, in a statement Tuesday, said travelers on the New York-Amsterdam route had long been subject to "very expensive fares and mediocre service" on the U.S. legacy airlines and their partners. JetBlue, he added, would "bring fares down and improve the experience for customers flying betwe