JetBlue Airways reported a $57 million profit in the third quarter as strong travel demand and higher fares helped the airline cover fuel and other costs. The airline’s revenue rose by 30% during Q3 of 2022 as compared to Q3 of 2021 with total revenue of $2.56bn.
JetBlue’s CEO, Robin Hayes, said: “The carrier expects another solid quarter of mid-single-digit pre-tax margins in the fourth quarter, and we’ll look to expand on that further in 2023 as we continue to restore our earnings power.”
JetBlue’s CFO, Ursula Hurley said: “While the revenue outlook is strong, we must continue to be thoughtful about every penny we spend, particularly in today’s environment, since our entire business model of competing with lower fares is based on having lower costs relative to the legacy airlines. Despite the quarterly results, the airline will not post a full-year profit in 2022 after the bumps we faced in the first half of the year with the Omicron variant and operational challenges.”
JetBlue expanded its transatlantic service during Q3 with new daily flights between Boston and London. The airline plans to add a third frequency between New York-JFK and London later this week, which will bring JetBlue’s total daily flights between the Northeast and London to five.
“Given the continued fragile aviation ecosystem, we are taking a cautious approach to operational investments and more conservative planning assumptions that we put in place for the summer,” CFO Hurley said in the earnings release.
“We look forward to taking delivery of a handful of Airbus 321LR aircraft next year to support our expansion to Europe, notwithstanding some modest delivery delays,” Hayes said. “Stay tuned for an announcement soon.”
“As we look to 2023, we take comfort in the fact that the US economy is much larger than it was prior to the pandemic, while industry capacity is still below pre-pandemic levels, suggesting that our industry’s experience with a potential 2023 economic downturn could look quite different than historical downturns,” COO Geraghty said during the quarterly call.
