-- As the Official Airline Partner and a
Founding Member of this Caribbean Consortium, JetBlue Furthers Its
Mission to Balance Conservation and Commerce --
-- Caribbean Consortium Kicks Off with a
‘Spotlight on Cuba’ --
JetBlue (Nasdaq:JBLU), New York's Hometown Airline®, today
announced the development of a Caribbean consortium with The New
York Botanical Garden (NYBG). Aligned with other like-minded
partners across multiple disciplines, this effort will address
conservation and commerce in the Caribbean. The Consortium will
start with a “Spotlight on Cuba” and will focus on other Caribbean
destinations in the future. In 2016, JetBlue became the first U.S.
airline to bring affordable and convenient commercial air travel to
Cuba after more than 50 years.
During year one, this group will make recommendations on
development and environmental issues, to help ensure that Cuba’s
natural habitat is protected for future generations. With support
from members including JetBlue, The New York Botanical Garden will
build upon past findings on Cuba and the Caribbean at large through
four key components of conservation action – capacity-building,
influencing public policy, knowledge-sharing and increasing access
to resources.
“One-third of our network is in the Caribbean and Latin America.
Conserving the natural resources of Cuba, one of the most
ecologically diverse islands, is important to maintaining its
unique ecosystem,” said Sophia Mendelsohn, JetBlue’s head of
sustainability. “JetBlue wants to protect the region’s natural
beauty, which in turn protects progress and our business. This is
particularly relevant as development in Cuba continues to
grow.”
Under the direction of Dr. Brian Boom, Vice President for
Conservation Strategy, who leads NYBG’s Cuba initiative, the NYBG
Caribbean Consortium will bring together a cross-section of key
stakeholders from business, academia, and NGOs.
“It is very gratifying to see research results on the threatened
plants in Cuba, conducted over many years by NYBG and its
collaborators, being used to help inform sustainable visits to
Cuba,” Dr. Boom said. “This partnership with JetBlue is going to
help translate conservation research into conservation action.”
The partnership will also include opportunities for JetBlue
customers and crewmembers, New York-area residents, and visitors to
The New York Botanical Garden to learn more about the Caribbean
including Cuba and its biodiversity.
This partnership is an extension of JetBlue’s conservation
efforts in the Caribbean outlined in EcoEarnings: A Shore Thing.
This report highlights the connection between ecosystems and
revenue. Travel to the Caribbean is a key pillar of JetBlue’s
business model. Large-scale environmental degradation in the
Caribbean is a risk to demand for air travel to the area, impacting
airlines and tourism companies like JetBlue. This study starts to
link the importance of clean, intact, and healthy beaches and
shorelines to tourism’s profitability in the Caribbean, with a
focus on JetBlue and industry revenue per available seat mile
(RASM).
The New York Botanical Garden’s Scientific Research in
Cuba – NYBG has a long history of research and
scientific/conservation capacity-building in Cuba, dating back to
1903. Since then, in partnership with Cuban institutions, NYBG
scientists have conducted more than two dozen expeditions to Cuba,
resulting in the collection of more than 45,000 plant and fungal
specimens from the island. Over the past two decades, NYBG has
maintained a robust exchange program with Cuban scientific
institutions, through which more than two dozen Cuban scientists
have visited NYBG for training and to use its scientific resources.
NYBG scientists, along with their Cuban counterparts, have been
charting Cuba’s most vulnerable plant species for the past decade.
Data gleaned from field expeditions, databases, and laboratory
analyses are revealing the probable level of endangerment of plant
species on the island presently and further into the 21st century.
Preliminary results, based on Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
analyses of approximately 1,800 plant species, have confirmed that
the flora of the Caribbean’s largest and most diverse island is
indeed threatened by a changing climate in the long term and
destruction of natural habitats and other threats in the shorter
term.
JetBlue’s Commitment to the Environment - JetBlue depends
on natural resources and a healthy environment, among other things,
to keep its business running smoothly. Natural resources are
essential for the airline to fly and tourism relies on having
beautiful, natural and preserved destinations for customers to
visit. The airline focuses on issues that have the potential to
impact its business. Customers, crewmembers and community are key
to JetBlue's sustainability strategy. Demand from these groups for
responsible service is one of the motivations behind changes that
help reduce the airline’s environmental impact. For more on
JetBlue’s conservation initiatives, visit jetblue.com/green.
Traveling to Cuba on JetBlue – JetBlue began operating
commercial flights to Cuba in August 2016, becoming the first U.S.
airline to fly to the island in more than 50 years. The airline
operates nearly 50 flights a week between multiple U.S. gateways
and four Cuban cities.
All U.S. customers traveling to Cuba must be authorized to do so
Each customer from the United States of America must comply with
regulations administered by the United States Office of Foreign
Assets Control (OFAC) and is solely responsible for ensuring that
his or her trip is authorized under at least one of the OFAC
approved license categories and for obtaining any applicable
visa.
About JetBlue
JetBlue is New York's Hometown Airline®, and a leading
carrier in Boston, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, Los
Angeles (Long Beach), Orlando, and San Juan. JetBlue carries
more than 38 million customers a year to 101 cities in the
U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America with an average
of 1,000 daily flights. For more information please visit
jetblue.com.
About The New York Botanical Garden
The New York Botanical Garden is a museum of plants, an
educational institution, and a scientific research organization.
Founded in 1891, the Botanical Garden is one of the world’s
preeminent centers for studying plants at all levels, from the
whole organism down to its DNA. Garden scientists conduct
fundamental research on plants and fungi globally, as well as on
the many relationships between plants and people. A National
Historic Landmark, the Garden’s 250-acre site is one of the
greatest botanical gardens in the world and the largest in any city
in the United States, distinguished by the beauty of its diverse
landscape and extensive collections and gardens, as well as by the
scope and excellence of its programs in horticulture, education,
and plant research and conservation. Learn more: nybg.org
View source
version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180214006149/en/
MEDIAJetBlue Corporate CommunicationsTel: +1 718 709
3089corpcomm@jetblue.com
JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024