JetBlue Airways November Traffic, Capacity Rise; Load Factor Declines

(RTTNews) - JetBlue Airways Corp. (JBLU) reported Wednesday its preliminary traffic results for November 2019. Traffic in November increased 3.7 percent from the year-ago period, on a capacity increase of 7.1 percent.

Traffic, measured in revenue passenger miles, increased to 4.26 billion from 4.11 billion a year ago. Capacity, measured in available seat miles, grew to 5.27 billion from 4.92 billion in the same period last year.

However, load factor for November decreased 2.7 percentage points to 80.8 percent from 83.5 percent in the prior-year period.

Looking ahead, JetBlue now expects fourth-quarter revenue per available seat mile or RASM to decline between 3.5 percent and 1.5 percent, driven by softer than expected close-in yields in late November, combined with the negative impact of weather over the Thanksgiving holiday peak.

Earlier, the company projected fourth-quarter RASM to decline between 3.5 percent and 0.5 percent.