JetBlue Profit Doubles on Cheap Fuel
January 28 2016 - 9:30AM
Dow Jones News
JetBlue Airways Corp. reported its profit more than doubled in
the final quarter of the year, handily beating Wall Street
expectations as the airline soars above its peers on cheap fuel and
better-than-expected revenue performance.
Shares of the company, which have risen 35% over the past 12
months, got another 3.5% lift premarket to $22.
For the quarter, fuel costs tumbled 31% to $300 million. JetBlue
reported it had hedges in place for about 14% of its fuel
consumption, driving the average price of fuel down 38% to $1.68 a
gallon versus $2.70 in the quarter last year. The airline recorded
$33 million in losses on fuel hedges settling during the fourth
quarter.
The company said it has no hedges in place for the first and
second quarters of 2016 and expects fuel at an average of $1.12 a
gallon in the first quarter.
Severe winter weather spurred a jump in flight cancellations in
the first quarter of 2015, increasing JetBlue's 2016 capacity
growth rate by about 2.5% in the first quarter and 0.5% for the
full year. The airline said it expects capacity to increase 14% to
16% in the first quarter and 8.5% to 10.5% for the year.
Capacity is a closely watched metric in the airline sector
because of concerns that airlines may be making too many seats
available. The airline said the outlook doesn't include the impact
of last weekend's snowstorm that hit the northeast U.S. and caused
more than 900 cancellations last week.
But Chief Executive Robin Hayes pointed to above-industry
average revenue performance.
JetBlue's unit revenue—the amount it takes in per seat flown a
mile—fell 3.6% in the quarter compared with a year ago. Traffic
jumped 12.4% in the quarter while capacity rose 10.4%, pushing load
factor, or the percentage of seats filled, 1.5 points to 83.6%.
The company posted a profit of $190 million, or 56 cents a
share, up from $88 million, or 26 cents a share, a year earlier.
Revenue climbed 10% to $1.59 billion.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast per-share earnings
of 51 cents a share on revenue of $1.58 billion.
Write to Anne Steele at Anne.Steele@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 28, 2016 09:15 ET (14:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024