JetBlue Airways is predicting a decline in its fourth-quarter revenue compared to the previous year, even after posting a stronger-than-expected performance for the third quarter. The airline forecasts a revenue decrease of 3% to 7%, contrasting with the $2.33 billion reported during the same quarter last year.
Analysts anticipate $2.31 billion for the upcoming December quarter. For the entirety of 2024, JetBlue expects revenues to fall by 4% to 5% from last year's total of $9.62 billion, whereas Wall Street targets a revenue of $9.29 billion this year. In July, JetBlue had initially estimated a revenue decline of 4% to 6%, but that projection was refined in September during its JetForward strategy presentation, which primarily focused on interest expenses rather than revenue forecasts. The company experienced net losses for both the fourth quarter and the full year of 2023.
On Tuesday, JetBlue's stock saw a significant drop of 17% during afternoon trading. Despite this downturn, JetBlue reported that its adjusted net loss for the most recent quarter shrank to $0.16 per share, improving from a loss of $0.39 a year earlier. Operating revenue saw a minor increase of 0.5%, reaching $2.37 billion, while analysts had forecasted a normalized loss of $0.21 on revenue of $2.35 billion.
JetBlue's third-quarter system capacity, measured in available seat miles (ASM), declined by 3.6% compared to the previous year. Concurrently, operating expenses per ASM, excluding fuel, rose by 4.8%. However, unit revenue increased by 4.3% due to robust demand during peak travel times and enhanced close-in bookings.
"Our number one goal remains returning to operating profitability, and growing our unit revenue is imperative to reach operating profitability," stated President Marty St. George. He added, "As underlying trends from the third quarter have broadly continued into the fourth quarter so far, we expect unit revenue growth to remain positive and sequentially consistent when adjusting for the benefits from CrowdStrike in the third quarter and the negative impacts of Hurricane Milton and the election in the fourth quarter." Last month, JetBlue noted it experienced advantages due to cancellations by other airlines following a technology outage instigated by a software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike in July. "As we look to 2025, I am encouraged by the backdrop for our revenue performance to continue improving, particularly as additional JetForward initiatives begin yielding benefits," St.
George shared on Tuesday..