JetBlue TrueBlue - Jetblue Reports Feb. Traffic

http://biz.yahoo.com/pz/080306/137744.html

JetBlue Airways Corporation (NasdaqGS:JBLU - News) reported today that its traffic in February increased 16.7 percent from February 2007, on a capacity increase of 21.5 percent.

Load factor for February 2008 was 76.8 percent, a decrease of 3.2 points from February 2007. JetBlue's preliminary completion factor was 97.7 percent and its on-time (1) performance was 67.8 percent. JetBlue's preliminary passenger revenue per available seat mile for the month of February increased 27 percent year over year. Approximately two-thirds of this increase was attributable to the impact of last year's ice storm when JetBlue cancelled approximately 1,200 flights, which resulted in a February 2007 completion factor of 90.9%

At first glance these numbers are ok. Have to wonder about the dwindling LF's though. They have to capture higher fares with less seats. This quarter will be interesting for them.

At first glance these numbers are ok. Have to wonder about the dwindling LF's though. They have to capture higher fares with less seats. This quarter will be interesting for them.

Agreed that dwindling LFs are not great, however jetBlue learned a lesson that full planes do not equate to profitability. More importantly, as revenue greatly increased year over year, they're back in the black.

Agreed that dwindling LFs are not great, however jetBlue learned a lesson that full planes do not equate to profitability. More importantly, as revenue greatly increased year over year, they're back in the black.

Revenue mostly increased because they didn't cancel 1200 flights, which is a good thing but not necessarily a definitive mark that they are on the road to long-term profits. The "real" number is RASM, which increased 27%, two-thirds of which is attributable to the meltdown. So someone is calculating that RASM is up 9% over last February, unless I'm reading it wrong. If RASM is up 9% and loads drop 2.3% that's just fine for the company, but the actual numbers aren't in the release so it is hard to verify that's what actually happened.