JetBlue has "made good progress" on its discussions with "multiple airlines" about a "domestic partnership," the carrier's executives said on a Tuesday earnings call.
The carrier is "expecting an announcement at some point during the second quarter," said JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty on the call.
JetBlue president Marty St. George suggested members of JetBlue's TrueBlue loyalty program would be able to earn points on the partner carrier's flights.
The partnership would offer a "significantly high network opportunity for earn and burn of TrueBlue points, which we think greatly improves the utility of TrueBlue," said St. George. "And that means, for example, today if you are a customer in the Northeast and you love JetBlue for leisure, but twice a year you have to go to Omaha or Boise, these are places that you can't earn TrueBlue points on now, and when the partnership goes forward, you will be able to."
American Airlines apparently is not in the running after it announced Monday evening that it had ended talks with JetBlue on a new partnership—and then sued the New York-based carrier over unpaid Northeast Alliance-related invoices.
When pressed Tuesday by analysts for more information, such as whether "domestic partnership" meant a domestic airline or "providing domestic feed to a non-domestic airline," St. George replied that the partnership will be with "a domestic airline with a larger network."
JetBlue Q1 Performance
Geraghty noted that the relatively strong booking trends seen throughout January "deteriorated into February and worsened further in March," she said. "As we look to the second half of the year, the outlook remains unpredictable, and given the macroeconomic uncertainty, we are not reaffirming our full-year guidance."
The softness seen in February and March were "particularly in the shoulders and troughs," St. George added. "During the quarter, peaks were relatively healthy, and unit revenues held up well compared to the troughs. Close-in demand, however, did not materialize at a similar rate to what we saw in the fourth quarter and in January, impacting all bookings, but more acutely affecting trough and shoulder flying."
The carrier reacted to the trends by "cutting capacity across 20 different markets," St. George said. "We saw weakness across our domestic network. However, our international flying delivered relatively stronger performance year over year."
JetBlue Q1 Metrics
JetBlue reported first-quarter passenger revenue of $1.97 billion, down 4.2 percent year over year. Total revenue was $2.14 billion, down 3.1 percent. The net loss for Q1 was $208 million compared with a Q1 2024 loss of $716 million.
First-quarter capacity decreased 4.3 percent year over year. The average fuel price was $2.57 per gallon.
Second-quarter guidance includes a projected capacity decline of 0.5 percent to 3.5 percent year over year and an average fuel price of $2.25 to $2.40 per gallon.
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