Dallas, Texas 04/25/2014 (FINANCIALSTRENDS) – JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ:JBLU) announced first quarter 2014 results on 24th April. The highlights of the earnings call are as follows. The airline reported operating income of $41 million in the reporting quarter, which was well below the $59 million it had reported in 1Q13. This further came down to $6 million pre-tax as against the $23 million it had reported in 1Q13. Net income came in at $4 million, as against the $14 million it had reported in 1Q13.
In spite of the dip in net income, JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ:JBLU) reported revenue of $1.3 billion. The income dip was caused by sever disruption in the operations during the reporting quarter caused due to severe disruption in weather across U.S and Europe. This had caused the airliner to cancel nearly 4100 flights in the reporting period. The airliner has estimated that it had to forego nearly $50 million in terms of revenue due to these cancelations. Operating net income was down by $35 million due to the same reason.
Dave Barger who is JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ:JBLU) Chief Executive Officer has been quoted to have said that, “We reported our sixteenth consecutive quarter of profitability. While first quarter results were negatively impacted by severe winter weather in the Northeast, we believe our maturing network in high-value geography together with our differentiated product and service will help JetBlue expand margins and improve shareholder returns in 2014. We achieved year over year improvements in yield and fare while growing capacity.”
To offset the drop in revenue due to adverse weather, JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ:JBLU) reported revenue per passenger mile in 1Q14 was up by 1.8 percent, which was achieved on the back of capacity build up in 2.7 percent. The load factor was down 83.1 percent in the reporting period.
