JetBlue Profit Rises as Passenger Traffic Increases
October 25 2016 - 9:50AM
Dow Jones News
JetBlue Airways Corp. said its third-quarter profit edged higher
as passenger traffic increased and fuel costs remained low.
But the primarily domestic low-fare carrier also said it expects
a measure of costs to rise in the fourth quarter between 4.5% and
6.5%, including a negative impact from Hurricane Matthew.
Shares declined 1.6% premarket.
The New York-Based carrier reported that passenger traffic
increased 7.6%, while capacity grew 6.3% and the percentage seats
filled—or load factor—grew to 86.3%, a 1 point increase from last
year. However, passenger unit revenue—a measure of sales per seat
flown a mile—fell roughly 5.9% to 13.20 cents.
Like its larger rivals, JetBlue has seen its revenue pressured
by weak fares, while profit has benefited from low fuel costs. For
the quarter ending in September, the realized fuel price was $1.48
a gallon, 20% below the price for the prior year. However, the
airline said it expects fuel prices to rise to $1.63 in the current
quarter.
Over all for the third quarter. JetBlue reported a profit of
$199 million, or 58 cents a share, compared with $198 million, or
58 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 10% to $1.73 billion.
Analysts had forecast earnings of 60 cents on $1.73 billion in
revenue.
Write to Imani Moise at imani.moise@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 25, 2016 09:35 ET (13:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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