jetBlue reports profitable 3rd quarter

JetBlue Airways has reported third-quarter net income of $71 million, up 57.8% over a net profit of $45 million in the prior-year period and its 14^th profitable quarter in a row.                                                                        Third-quarter revenue rose 10.4% year-over-year to $1.44 billion.

The earnings results were released as the New York-based low-cost carrier (LCC) announced a new order for 20 Airbus A321neos and 15 A321ceos. The carrier also said Tuesday it has reached an agreement with Embraer to defer 24 E-190s from delivery in the 2014-2018 timeframe to delivery between 2020 and 2022.

“We believe these fleet changes will provide increased ability to match capacity and demand throughout our network and reduce costs,” JetBlue president and CEO Dave Barger said.
 
The carrier will keep its E-190 fleet at “approximately 60 aircraft in the near term,” it said in a statement. Barger explained, “While the E-190 is critical to our continued success in Boston and San Juan [Puerto Rico], we are now at the point where our network growth calls for larger gauge aircraft.”

JetBlue’s third-quarter operating expenses increased 8.1% year-over-year to $1.29 billion and operating profit was $152 million, up 34.8%.

Operating margin was 10.5%, up 1.9 points from the 2012 September quarter. The airline’s third-quarter traffic rose 5.4% to 9.56 billion RPMs on a 5.1% lift in capacity to 11.25 billion ASMs, producing a load factor of 85%, up 0.2 point. Passenger yield increased 5.1% to 13.83 cents.

(Aaron Karp - ATWOnline News)