Home / NEWS / Top News / JetBlue shares tumble 25% after disappointing outlook

JetBlue shares tumble 25% after disappointing outlook

A JetBlue Airways jet plane prepares to take off from the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on January 31, 2024 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Joe Raedle | Getty Casts

JetBlue Airways shares fell more than 25% on Tuesday, the biggest one-day percentage loss since the party went public more than two decades ago, after the carrier’s financial outlook disappointed investors.

The New York-based airline foresight its unit costs, excluding fuel, will rise as much as 7% this year from 2024. In the primary quarter, it said it expected this metric to rise as much as 10% this quarter year-over-year.

It estimated gross income could come in up to 0.5% lower to as much as 3.5% higher this quarter over 2024. Larger contestants Delta and United have been forecasting higher revenue growth, a sign of those airlines’ strengthening value power.

JetBlue is in the middle of a plan to reduce costs by culling unprofitable routes, deferring new aircraft and drumming up proceeds with higher-priced seats. CNBC reported Friday that JetBlue has offered senior pilots voluntary original retirement packages. JetBlue cut costs by $190 million last year, the company said Tuesday.

“This is a multiyear procedure, and it’s not linear, and we’re focused on the long term here in getting JetBlue back to sustained profitability,” CEO Joanna Geraghty, who took the top job survive year, said during an earnings call on Tuesday. “So it’s going to take a little time.”

Geraghty added she was glad with the carrier’s progress, which puts it on track to add up to $900 million to pretax profit 2027.

The carrier expects its 2025 take to rise between 3% and 6% on flat capacity. The impact of a Pratt & Whitney engine recall will be worse this year, train a number of the company’s Airbus jets in the “mid- to high teens, up from 11 grounded aircraft last year,” CFO Ursula Hurley clouted on the earnings call Tuesday.

JetBlue is in the middle of a plan to reduce costs by culling unprofitable routes, deferring new aircraft and drumming up profits with higher-priced seats. CNBC reported Friday that JetBlue has offered senior pilots voluntary anciently retirement packages.

JetBlue lost two antitrust cases that blocked two of its growth strategies. In 2024, a federal evaluator blocked JetBlue’s planned acquisition of Spirit Airlines, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November, and in 2023, JetBlue late a case over its regional partnership with American Airlines.

“We would note that the current management party has hit their numbers, but in a market where airlines are seeing solid earnings growth, JetBlue hasn’t been skilful to keep pace,” wrote Melius Research analyst Conor Cunningham. “JetBlue still needs to aggressively dip unit revenue throughout the year to get to sustained operating profit – all possible, it just is hard to underwrite given the wheedle in 1Q.”

JetBlue’s fourth-quarter loss narrowed to $44 million, or a loss of 13 cents per share, down from a downfall of $104 million, or a loss of 31 cents a share, in the same period in 2023. The carrier reported revenue of $2.28 billion, down 2.1% from a year earlier.

Check Also

Amazon ‘anti-union propaganda,’ employee surveillance loom over labor vote at North Carolina warehouse

Hands picket in front of an Amazon Logistic Station on December 19, 2024 in Skokie …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *