JetBlue Reports $188 Million Loss in Second Quarter

While JetBlue Airways looks optimistically forward fresh off its deal last week to purchase Spirit Airlines, the New York-based carrier reported a loss in the second quarter when it announced quarterly earnings this morning.

While it had a record quarterly revenue of $2.45 billion, JetBlue still lost $188 million, saying that costs – mostly fuel – increased more than 35 percent from the previous quarter.

“While high fuel prices and our short-term operational investments are weighing on our margins this summer, we’re making steady underlying progress on our long-term initiatives to structurally improve our profitability and enhance our long-term earnings power,” JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes said in a statement.

Still, Hayes was optimistic about the results and said he expects the airline to return to profitability when third-quarter results are announced sometime in October.

“We reported a record-breaking revenue result for the second quarter, and we’re on pace to top it again here in the third quarter and drive our first quarterly profit since the start of the pandemic,” Hayes said. “I’m proud to say that our operational performance improved significantly through the quarter, and we capitalized on the strong demand environment to deliver revenue growth above the top-end of our original guidance range. We’ve entered the third quarter with some solid momentum that we expect to carry through to a sustained profit inflection.”