JetBlue Airways has revised its second quarter capacity and revenue guidance as it claims “strong operational performance” so far during the second three-month period of 2024.
The New York-based company said on 3 June that it now expects capacity as measured in available seat miles (ASMs) to decline between 2% and 4%, narrowing the range of ASM decline previously expected, which had been between 2% and 5%.
Revenue is expected to fall by 6.5% to 9.5%, rather than the previous estimate of a 6.5% to 10.5% decline.
“The company continues to experience healthy overall demand trends, in line with expectations,” JetBlue says in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. “Better operational performance is driving solid cost execution in the second quarter, and is further supported by recent trends in jet fuel prices, which have declined over the quarter.”
The airline is calculating with a jet fuel price per gallon of between $2.85 and $2.95, down from a previous estimate of between $2.98 and $3.13.
Last month, JetBlue said it would open a crew base in San Juan, Puerto Rico, amid a sweeping strategy shift to focus more on the Caribbean. By 2025, the base will employ about 125 pilots and 325 flight attendants, boosting its operations from San Juan to destinations in the US, Caribbean and Latin America.
The move comes as the company is attempting to chart a new path forward following the collapse of both its Northeast Alliance with American Airlines and its planned acquisition of Spirit Airlines. Both deals were blocked on anti-competitive grounds in the same US federal court. Both of those potential partners have strong Latin American and Caribbean networks.
JetBlue has since also pivoted to the region, in an effort to target “core customers and geographies, redeploying capacity from underperforming markets and doubling down on proven leisure and [visiting friends and relatives] markets”, its president Marty St George said in April.
The company lost $716 million during the first quarter of 2024 and has said it expects to record a loss for the full year of 2024.
