Despite a delayed corporate travel rebound, JetBlue performed better than expected in terms of third-quarter revenue, executives said Tuesday during the carrier's earnings call.
JetBlue reported $1.97 billion in total revenue, including $1.8 billion in passenger revenue, during the third quarter, down 5.5 percent compared with the same period in 2019. Capacity for the quarter was down 0.8 percent compared with 2019.
JetBlue had expected revenue for the quarter to be down between 6 percent and 9 percent compared with 2019, but it is doing better than expected with its most recent revamp of the fare options it first introduced in 2015 as well as an uptick in demand at the end of the quarter.
JetBlue president and COO Joanna Geraghty said performance was "solid" in July and August, and then September "took the brunt" of the demand slowdown as Covid-19 cases picked up across much of the country. Those trends stabilized later in the month and have continued to improve, she said.
The pull-back in corporate demand, however, likely will continue throughout the fourth quarter. As such, along with the usual slowdown in leisure demand in the fourth quarter outside of the holidays, JetBlue projects revenue will be down between 8 percent and 13 percent for the quarter compared with 2019, with capacity down between 4 percent and 7 percent.
"We expect troughs to be challenging, exacerbated by a slower business travel recovery, but the holidays are performing meaningfully better, and we took tactical capacity actions to better align with the demand environment," Geraghty said.
JetBlue reported net income of $130 million for the quarter, which included the benefits of the federal payroll support program. Excluding that and other special items, the carrier reported a loss of $39 million for the quarter, compared with an adjusted net income of $176 million in the third quarter of 2019.
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