JetBlue plans to begin offering in mid-November its Even More Space extra-legroom seat directly on the flight search results page on the company's website, the company said Tuesday, and starting in 2025, JetBlue will rebrand the offering as a bundle that includes new benefits and amenities.
"Customers have increasingly asked for a more premium experience," JetBlue president Marty St. George said during the company's third-quarter earnings call.
The carrier's premium offerings of preferred seating, Even More Space and Mint "all continue to perform well," JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty said. Premium segment revenue in the quarter was up by double-digit percentages year over year, St. George said.
When asked about the carrier's strong focus on leisure and whether that would mean changes to its TrueBlue frequent-flyer program, St. George said that "every single person [who] flies is a leisure customer," he said. "There is a subset of them who are both leisure and business customers. So, being focused on the leisure customer actually I think is an opportunity for us."
In September, JetBlue announced it would add airport lounges in New York and Boston and offer a new premium co-branded credit card.
JetBlue Q3 Metrics
JetBlue reported a third-quarter loss and a negative operating margin of 1.6 percent, the company said. Still, Geraghty said the latter represents a 5 percentage-point improvement year over year, and 5 percentage points higher than initial expectations for the quarter.
JetBlue reported third-quarter passenger revenue of $2.2 billion, about even compared with Q3 2023. Total revenue was up 0.5 percent year over year to nearly $2.37 billion. Net loss was $60 million, down from the $153 million loss a year prior. Capacity decreased 3.6 percent year over year. The average fuel price was $2.67 per gallon.
Fourth-quarter guidance included a year-over-year reduction in capacity of 4 percent to 7 percent, and revenue to decline 3 percent to 7 percent for the same period. Average fuel price is projected to be $2.50 to $2.65 per gallon.
Full-year 2024 guidance included capacity to decline 2.5 percent to 4.5 percent year over year and revenue to decrease 4 percent to 5 percent compared with Q4 2023, with per-gallon average fuel costs of $2.75 to $2.80.
The only 2025 projection executives shared was that the company projects capacity for that year to be flat compared with 2024.
RELATED: JetBlue Q2 performance