JetBlue Airways Q3 Profit Down

(RTTNews) - JetBlue Airways Corp. (JBLU) reported that its net income for the third quarter 2017 declined to $179 million, or $0.55 per share from $199 million, or $0.58 per share in the prior year.

"Our third quarter results were impacted by two hurricanes that reduced our EPS by approximately 6 cents. We are confident that the adjustments we are making to our network will limit any ongoing financial impact in 2018," said Robin Hayes, JetBlue's President and CEO.

Total operating revenues were $1.81 billion, up from $1.73 billion last year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.53 per share and revenues of $1.81 billion. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenue passenger miles for the third quarter increased 2.3% to 12.2 billion on a capacity increase of 3.7%, resulting in a third quarter load factor of 85.1%, a 1.2 point decrease year over year.

Capacity is expected to increase between 4.5% and 5.5% year over year in the fourth quarter 2017. For the full year 2017, JetBlue expects capacity to increase between 4.0% and 5.0%.

RASM growth is expected to range between (3.0%) and 0.0% for the fourth quarter 2017 compared to the same period in 2016.

CASM excluding fuel is expected to grow between 5.0% and 7.0% for the fourth quarter of 2017. For the full year 2017, JetBlue expects year over year CASM excluding fuel to grow between 4.0% and 5.0%.