JetBlue Airways Corp. said its revenue grew 7.9% in the June
quarter, as the airline continued to benefit from lower fuel prices
and higher traffic.
The airline had hedges in place for about a fifth of its fuel
consumption. This resulted in a fuel price of $2.13 a gallon, down
31% from the year earlier. But the company still recorded $30
million in losses on fuel hedges in the second quarter.
For the current quarter, 14% of its fuel has been hedged, and
the company expects an average price per gallon of $1.95. For the
fourth quarter, JetBlue has hedged 15% of projected fuel
consumption.
For the current quarter, capacity—a metric that has been watched
closely in the airline sector on concerns that airlines may be
making too many seats available—is expected to grow between 8.5%
and 10.5%.
Overall, JetBlue reported profit of $152 million, or 44 cents a
share, down from $230 million, or 68 cents a share, a year earlier.
The year-earlier quarter's profit was boosted by a $242 million
gain on the sale of a subsidiary.
Revenue grew to $1.61 billion from $1.49 billion a year
earlier.
Analysts had been expecting earnings of 44 cents a share on
revenue of $1.62 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
Revenue passenger miles increased 8.7% to $10.5 billion as
capacity grew 7.5%. Load factor, or the percentage of seats filled,
grew to 85.6% from 64.6%. Passenger revenue per available seat
mile, a key industry metric, increased 1.4% to 12.22 cents.
Operating expenses fell 1.7%.
Shares, which edged up 0.1% in premarket trading on Tuesday,
have risen more than 40% this year.
Write to Angela Chen at angela.chen@wsj.com