New York Post

Schumer: Don’t fly NY JetBlue jobs to Fla.

- Noah Manskar

Sen. Chuck Schumer personally pleaded with JetBlue’s boss not to shrink the budget airline’s Big Apple workforce as it weighs shipping jobs to Florida, The Post has learned.

New York’s senior senator said he made his case on a phone call with JetBlue Chief Executive Robin Hayes Wednesday evening — a day after The Post exclusivel­y reported that the carrier was considerin­g whether to move some jobs from its Long Island City headquarte­rs to existing offices in the Sunshine State.

On Thursday, Schumer told The Post he wanted to remind Hayes that “JetBlue’s roots and its future are here in New York.” He also pointed out the billions of dollars in federal aid that airlines like it have received during the coronaviru­s crisis.

“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,” the Democratic Senate majority leader told The Post in a statement Thursday.

“Bottom line, I am confident JetBlue will remain New York’s hometown airline for a long time to come.”

JetBlue says it has not yet determined how many corporate jobs it may shift to Florida, home to its Orlando training center and the Fort Lauderdale headquarte­rs of its travelprod­ucts subsidiary.

It may also choose to keep its morethan-1,300 Long Island City staffers where they are or move to another office in the Big Apple after its current lease expires in July 2023, the carrier told NYC workers in a March 11 memo that The Post obtained.

JetBlue is mulling the move after taking nearly $1.5 billion in federal grants and loans to keep its workers on the payroll as the COVID-19 pandemic battered airlines, according to US Treasury data.

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