LONDON – According to data provided by RadarBox.com, JetBlue is nearing pre-pandemic levels of typical flights operated, highlighting good news in the direction of recovery.
The airline has slowly but surely been getting close to pre-pandemic levels in terms of total flights operated, based on the rolling seven-day averages it has been producing.
So without further ado, let’s get into the numbers…
The Numbers…
For August 13-20, the airline offered a seven-day rolling average of 981 flights, which is up 15.68% compared to the same period last year and is far higher than 2020’s figures.
To get to pre-pandemic numbers, the airline needs to operate another 65 flights per week, before full recovery to flight operations can be ascertained that way.
The 980s is basically where the airline has been over the last four weeks, with there now being a push needed to exceed 1,000 flights per week.
- July 16-23 – 981 movements – +12.63%
- July 23-30 – 957 movements – +9.50%
- July 30-August 6 – 983 movements – +12.73%
- August 6-13 – 980 movements – +11.49%
Q2 Losses Something to Work On…
Settings things off in a downside of results for the carrier, JetBlue has announced a reported GAAP pre-tax loss of $151 million, coupled with a loss per share of $0.58. Both of these figures are still down by quite a margin when compared to their Q2 results of 2019 (pre-pandemic) at a pre-tax income of $236 million, with their earnings per share standing at $0.59.
The carrier’s adjusted pre-tax loss, excluding one-time items, now stands at $102 million for Q2 2022, with an adjusted loss per share of $0.47, compared to Q2 2019’s adjusted pre-tax income, excluding one-time items of $238 million, with adjusted earnings per share of $0.60.
Interestingly, compared to 2019, JetBlue’s capacity for Q2 2022 was up by 2.3%, this capacity increase helped the carriers’ operating revenues this years quarter, with an increase of 63.1% when compared to Q2 2019, this equated to a record-breaking operating revenue of $2,445 million, with 2019’s being $1,499 million.
However, due to high operational expenses that amounted to a total of $2,588 million for this quarter, JetBlue came out with a total operating loss of $113 million, compared to Q2 2019’s operating income of $147 million, a 176.7% difference.
Another major thing to notice for JetBlue stock this quarter is that on July 28, Spirit Airlines’ Board of Directors approved a definitive merger agreement for JetBlue to acquire the U.S. LCC for $33.50 per share in cash.
This includes a pre-payment of $2.50 per share in cash that is payable upon Spirit’s stockholder’s approval of the transaction, as well as a ticking fee of $0.10 per month starting from January 2023 until the closure of the agreement. This shows promise for JetBlue stock.
This agreement with Spirit has a fully diluted equity value of $3.8 billion with an adjusted enterprise value of $7.6 billion.
In terms of JetBlue’s fleet plans, they have decided to accelerate the retirement of their Embraer E190 fleet by one year from year-end 2026 to now mid-2025.
With this, they are expediting their plans to switch to the Airbus A220 aircraft, of which JetBlue has a total of 100, including both its current fleet as well as aircraft still on back-order with Airbus, following a revised agreement that was announced earlier in the year.
