The US budget carrier’s British-born chief executive Robin Hayes, a former British Airways executive, will be in London on April 11 to deliver a speech at the Aviation Club.

Staff are understood to have been briefed on meeting a day earlier discussing the airline’s “vision and strategy”.

“We plan to announce our decision on the long range version of the A321 in 2019,” said the airline in a statement on Monday (March 4).

“Potential routes to Europe could provide us an opportunity to grow our focus cities of Boston and New York as we consider the best use of our aircraft from a margin perspective in those cities.”

Speaking at London’s Aviation Festival last year, Hayes said its hybrid business model – low-cost base; premium services – could shake up transatlantic business travel.

He branded last-minute business class fares from New York to London of $8,000 to $10,000 “obscene”, adding he believed JetBlue could “go in a lot cheaper”.

Its Mint business cabin on US coast-to-coast services has already shaken up business fares, driving advance fares on US transcontinental routes down from $2,000 to $599.

President Joanna Geraghty told Bloomberg last year the airline needed only to capture a “small incremental part” of the premium transatlantic market to be successful.

Tom Screen, Birmingham airport’s acting aviation director, told TTG last August the airport had been in discussion with JetBlue about its transatlantic plans.

JetBlue has more than A321neos on order, with delivery due to start this year. The airline is expected to convert some of these to Airbus’s long-range variant.