JetBlue Airways announced today it will provide free flights to immediate family members and domestic partners of the shooting victims from the tragedy in Orlando this weekend.
Forty-nine people were killed and more than 50 injured when a man opened fire with an assault rifle early Sunday morning at Pulse, a gay nightclub in the city. The man apparently had an allegiance to the ISIS terror group; it was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
JetBlue announced the initiative today via Twitter and its corporate website blog.
"Like many of you, we continue to watch reports of the Orlando nightclub shooting with great sadness. Our thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones," the carrier wrote. "This weekend's events are felt by all of our 19,000 crewmembers, many of whom live in, work from and travel through Orlando - one of our focus cities - at Orlando International Airport, our Orlando Support Center and JetBlue University. We want to do our part to help the victims of this tragedy, as well as support the Orlando community through this difficult time."
JetBlue said it will provide free seats on its available flights to/from Orlando for immediate family and domestic partners of victims who were killed or injured. Those family members and domestic partners requiring travel assistance can contact 1-800-JETBLUE for details.
A fee waiver is in place for customers traveling to/from Orlando who need to make last-minute changes to their travel plans.
For JetBlue crewmembers impacted by this event, the airline has activated resources to assist and are offering a donation program. Crewmembers can visit the company's internal website or talk to their crew leader for more details.
JetBlue will make a charitable contribution to support the victims and their families.
This is not the first time JetBlue has done something like this. In late December of 2014, the New York-based airline offered free flights to two members of every police department or law enforcement agency in the nation wishing to attend the funerals of two New York Police Dept. officers who were slain.
The uniformed officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, were shot and killed as they sat in their marked NYPD patrol car on a Brooklyn street. The gunman later killed himself.
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