Airlines chase Puerto Rico's 4-month Christmas season with new holiday routes

Airlines are extending Puerto Rico’s holiday season well beyond December, betting that Christmas demand can stretch into mid-January. The island’s destination marketing group counts nearly 45 days of festivities, from Thanksgiving through mid-January, ending with the four-day Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastián in Old San Juan. Frontier is adding seasonal daily service to San Juan from Dallas, Houston and Cleveland, with Dallas-Fort Worth running Nov. 20 to Jan. 4 and the other two routes starting Dec. 17 for the peak; the three add 15,624 seats and are expected to support about $10.4 million locally. American plans up to eight daily Miami-San Juan flights this winter. JetBlue launched five new routes from San Juan to Philadelphia, Jacksonville, Norfolk, Richmond and Buffalo, and Southwest begins weekly Columbus–San Juan Saturday service starting Jan. 9, 2027.