JetBlue Airways’ view of its fourth quarter financial results has brightened based on stronger-than-expected bookings and operational performance.
The New York-based carrier disclosed in a 4 December regulatory filing that its year-on-year on-time performance increased 12 percentage points in October and seven percentage points in November, “resulting in a range of benefits to date, from greater customer satisfaction to lower operational costs”.
JetBlue says that bookings following the US presidential election on 6 November did not dip as dramatically as expected, with strong demand and operational performance during the Thanksgiving holiday travel period further boosting projected results.
“For travel in December, in-quarter bookings exceeded prior expectations in both peak and off-peak travel periods,” JetBlue says.
The leisure carrier’s “JetForward” turnaround strategy is expected to “exceed $300 million of cumulative benefit” during the October-December period, with JetBlue citing positive momentum from its preferred seating and carry-on baggage changes.
JetBlue now anticipates a 2-5% year-on-year revenue decrease, versus its previous expectation of a 3-7% decrease from the same period of 2023.
And the carrier now expects capacity as measured in available seat miles (ASMs) to be down 4.5-6.5%, year on year, rather than its previously forecast ASM decrease of 4-7%.
JetBlue lost $60 million during the third quarter, compared with an $135 million loss in the July-September period of 2023. Company executives said at the time that JetForward – a broad strategy revealed in July that includes shrinking operations, improving reliability and introducing new seating options – was already improving costs and revenue trends.
Other aspects of the plan include the deferral of Airbus A321neo deliveries and an increasing reliance on the smaller A220s in coming years, which is partly a response to the Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engine issues that have grounded roughly a third of A320neo-family aircraft worldwide.
Company executives say the JetForward plan will generate $800-900 million in additional earnings between 2025 and 2027.
