JetBlue Profit Soars on Cheap Fuel

JetBlue Airways Corp. said its profit soared above expectations in the latest quarter as the airline benefited from cheap fuel and continued revenue growth.

Shares in the company rose 2.9% premarket to $20.95.

For the quarter, fuel costs tumbled 36% to $215 million, as JetBlue reported it had no fuel hedges in place in the first quarter. The average fuel price in the quarter was $1.17 a gallon, a 43% fall from a year ago's $2.06 and above the airline's estimate of $1.12 a gallon.

The airline said it expects capacity to increase between 9.5% and 11.5% in the second quarter and between 8.5% and 10.5% for the full year. Capacity is a closely watched metric in the airline sector because of concerns that airlines may be making too many seats available.

Chief Executive Robin Hayes said the company's "disciplined growth strategy continues to yield strong performance" with "higher margins than most of our competitors."

JetBlue's unit revenue—the amount it takes in per seat flown a mile—fell 8% in the quarter compared with a year ago. Traffic jumped 14.1% in the quarter while capacity rose 14.1%, resulting in load factor, or the percentage of seats filled, falling 0.1 point to 84.2%.

The company posted a profit of $199 million, or 59 cents a share, up from $137 million, or 40 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue climbed 6.1% to $1.62 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast per-share earnings of 53 cents a share on revenue of $1.62 billion.

Write to Anne Steele at Anne.Steele@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 26, 2016 09:15 ET (13:15 GMT)

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