Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) made a personal call to JetBlue chief executive Robin Hayes Wednesday in an effort to dissuade the airline CEO from moving the firm’s Long Island City headquarters to Florida.
Schumer cited the passing of the $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan,” which allocates an additional $14 billion for airlines, in arguing the company owes its allegiance to New York. JetBlue was founded in Queens in 1998.
“JetBlue’s roots and its future are here in New York,” Schumer told the New York Post — which broke news Wednesday of a company memo saying that JetBlue is weighing its options. “With the critical pandemic relief dollars we just delivered on to help save airlines like JetBlue, and the thousands and thousands of New Yorkers they already employ, the airline should actually clear the runway to grow here, not recede. Bottom line, I am confident JetBlue will remain New York’s hometown airline for a long time to come.”
JetBlue has yet to say how many of the more than 1,300 jobs it plans to move from its current office, which has a lease ending in 2023. The airline already houses its training center in Orlando and its travel subsidiary in Fort Lauderdale. The Post cited a March 11 memo sent to Long Island City staffers, which referenced the airline’s “own financial condition” as well as “more leasing options” amid the post-COVID “hybrid work environment.”
“We are exploring a number of paths, including staying in Long Island City, moving to another space in New York City, and/or shifting a to-be-determined number of [headquarter] roles to existing support centers in Florida,” the memo — the contents of which were later confirmed by a JetBlue spokesperson — reads.
JetBlue was previously wooed by Orlando in 2010, but accepted a favorable package from lawmakers to keep its headquarters in New York .