JetBlue Airways Posts Adj. Pre-tax Loss In Q4; Issues Q1 Guidance

(RTTNews) - JetBlue Airways Corp. (JBLU) reported an adjusted loss per share of $0.36 in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to adjusted profit per share of $0.56, two years ago. On average, 14 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report a loss per share of $0.39, for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. Excluding one-time items, adjusted pre-tax loss was $145 million in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Net loss was $129 million or $0.40 per share compared to profit of $161 million or $0.56 per share, two years ago.

Total operating revenues decreased to $1.83 billion from $2.03 billion, two years ago. Analysts on average had estimated $1.82 billion in revenue. Capacity declined by 5.4% year over two.

JetBlue ended the fourth quarter of 2021 with approximately $2.8 billion in unrestricted cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments.

For the first quarter of 2022, the company expects revenue to decrease between 11% and 16% year over three. For the first quarter, it expects capacity to range between a decline of 1% and an increase of 2% year over three. For full-year 2022, the company is planning to grow capacity between 11% and 15% from 2019.

"We're confident that we're on a path to sequential pre-tax margin improvement with sustained profitability in the spring and beyond. We expect to achieve greater operating leverage as we grow revenue while continuing to improve our unit cost performance," said Ursula Hurley, JetBlue's CFO.