I Flew on JetBlue’s First Flight From NYC to Belize — Here’s What It Was Like

As winter temperatures approach, New York-based JetBlue made its way to Belize for the first time. And lucky for me, I was one of the first to take the trip.

On Dec. 6, the airline became the only carrier to fly out of JFK to Belize City (BZE), and will offer the service 3 times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays going forward.

“Belize is a major tourist destination within Central America and we couldn’t be more thrilled to add it to our route map and introduce a new offering to our customers in New York,” a JetBlue spokesperson told Travel + Leisure. “This new route advances JetBlue’s leadership position in the Caribbean and Latin America, which represents one third of our operations.” 

Ready for my warm-weather getaway, I arrived at Terminal 5 at JFK with a little over an hour until boarding. My Mosaic status granted me priority security line and I was able to breeze through in under 10 minutes, even though it appeared to be a very busy morning. I could spot the gate from quite a ways a way as balloons, Belize-native Garafunda drummers and free breakfast tacos were at the gate to celebrate the inaugural flight. JetBlue provided passengers with free Belize t-shirts, hats, and other goodies as well as a ribbon cutting ceremony as part of the milestone.

Boarding started swiftly after the welcome speeches and I excitedly walked on the AirbusA320 that JetBlue cheekily named Sacre’ Bleu. This particular plane had a 3×3 configuration throughout the aircraft but did not have a Mint section. However there was an “Even More Space” section, which is where I found my seat. This section had ample amount of leg space as promised by the name which also provided extra space under the seat in front of me to place my bag.

The crew was incredibly nice and seemed equally as excited as the passengers, even placing mine and other guests’ bags in the overhead bins for us. A portion of the crew members were originally from Belize and now reside in New York. Once everyone was in their seat the captain came out to greet us. He told us he was born and raised in Belize and that his parents were on board, making the flight extra special.

Celebrating the inaugural flight, passengers played a game of in-flight bingo with prizes as the flight attendants encouraged guests to take as many snacks as we wanted. Before I knew it we had reached Belize and I had to hop on a second much smaller plane to Ambergris Caye where I stayed at Alaia Belize considered one of the best All-Inclusive resorts in Belize.

The JFK to Belize City route follows a recent flurry of new service from JetBlue including JFK to St Kitts, Boston to Grenada, and LAX to The Bahamas.

With even more additions on the horizon, JetBlue will be expanding its transatlantic service with seasonal routes from JFK and Boston to Dublin beginning in March of next year and JFK to Edinburgh in May.

JetBlue will also be providing more service to Paris with a route from Boston launching in April following its route from New York which launched this past June.