CaptBud330
Senior
- Aug 20, 2002
- 255
- 2
Not looking good
- Thread starter CaptBud330
- Start date
JetBlue seen slowing growth in face of challenges
Tuesday April 18, 2006 JetBlue Airways may "modestly retard its growth" through retirement of its oldest aircraft or deferrals of new deliveries and could make an announcement to that effect as early as next week, JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker speculated in a report released Monday.A JetBlue spokesperson told ATWOnline the carrier is in a quiet period ahead of its quarterly results release on April 25 and could not comment. Yesterday, it announced it hired a new VP-revenue management, filling a position that had been vacant since last fall (see item below).
JetBlue capacity rose 29% in the first quarter while traffic grew just 24%, pushing load factor down 3.5 points. The airline lost $20.3 million in 2005 and does not expect to be profitable this year. As of mid-March it operated 87 A320s and 10 Embraer 190s and had 96 A320s and 91 190s on order, according to the Airclaims CASE database.
"JetBlue requires an estimated $2 billion in incremental capital over the next two years" to pay for new aircraft, according to Baker, who added that "given the cost and yield supremacy of the Embraer 190," the carrier likely will slow the growth of the A320 fleet. He suggested it will cut planned A320 deliveries next year from 17 to 10.
In the same report, JP Morgan was bullish on US Airways' prospects owing to strong unit revenue growth, which was up 20% in the first quarter compared to the year-ago period, and the fact that the carrier generates a larger share of its revenue in strong Southwest Airlines markets than any other US airline, making it "the chief beneficiary of [Southwest's] full court press for higher fares." Baker expects US Airways' EBIT margin in 2006 to top other US carriers excluding Southwest.
by Perry Flint
Tuesday April 18, 2006 JetBlue Airways may "modestly retard its growth" through retirement of its oldest aircraft or deferrals of new deliveries and could make an announcement to that effect as early as next week, JP Morgan analyst Jamie Baker speculated in a report released Monday.A JetBlue spokesperson told ATWOnline the carrier is in a quiet period ahead of its quarterly results release on April 25 and could not comment. Yesterday, it announced it hired a new VP-revenue management, filling a position that had been vacant since last fall (see item below).
JetBlue capacity rose 29% in the first quarter while traffic grew just 24%, pushing load factor down 3.5 points. The airline lost $20.3 million in 2005 and does not expect to be profitable this year. As of mid-March it operated 87 A320s and 10 Embraer 190s and had 96 A320s and 91 190s on order, according to the Airclaims CASE database.
"JetBlue requires an estimated $2 billion in incremental capital over the next two years" to pay for new aircraft, according to Baker, who added that "given the cost and yield supremacy of the Embraer 190," the carrier likely will slow the growth of the A320 fleet. He suggested it will cut planned A320 deliveries next year from 17 to 10.
In the same report, JP Morgan was bullish on US Airways' prospects owing to strong unit revenue growth, which was up 20% in the first quarter compared to the year-ago period, and the fact that the carrier generates a larger share of its revenue in strong Southwest Airlines markets than any other US airline, making it "the chief beneficiary of [Southwest's] full court press for higher fares." Baker expects US Airways' EBIT margin in 2006 to top other US carriers excluding Southwest.
by Perry Flint
GroundedBoricua
Senior
- May 29, 2004
- 300
- 0
Retirement of aircraft???? :unsure: :unsure: I think the oldest one is 7 years old. You would problably mean park it. NW has planes that are 30 years old still flying.
Much closer to 40 years old than to 30. NW's oldest DC-9-30s (a number of them, in fact) were built in 1967!
Some have been "in the family" all along: North Central--Republic--Northwest, while others were acquired secondhand from Alitalia, Eastern, and other sources.
GroundedBoricua
Senior
- May 29, 2004
- 300
- 0
Damn that means that some are older than my mother-in-law 
groundcontrol
Veteran
Correct me if I am wrong, close or way off base.
I believe Blue got their planes basically for free from Airbus. Everyone in/outside Blue (at least I figured) eventually the maintenance part would catch up with them. I purposely did not persue a job with them as I would have been on the bottom of the list and probably layed off more than working. I see trouble on the horizon for Blue. Whatever, I wish you all luck in these hard times.
Yes, that must be it. Airbus just gives away aircraft for free. I don't know why this rumor won't die, but it is one of the silliest that I've ever seen.
Blue is hitting a rough patch. But they will get through it. The question is whether they will have to significantly cut back their growth. If AA, DL and NW continue to park planes and US continues to return leased planes as scheduled, then I suspect that B6 will have no problems. If they don't, then it will get ugly very quickly.
SoftLanding
Senior
- Jul 25, 2005
- 255
- 1
JetBlue might deliver the news next week re. Airbus deliveries slowdown with their 1st. qt. release.
This is something that is going to help them going forward, as their expansion is over the top.
SoftLanding
Damn that means that some are older than my mother-in-law
Like the USAF's B-52s, most are older than the people piloting 'em!
