JetBlue Airways has seen a substantial jump in air travel demand during March, with its daily revenue almost doubling – thought the airline has not reached cash-break-even levels.
“We’ve seen a lot of momentum coming into March,” JetBlue chief executive Robin Hayes says on 15 March during a JPMorgan investor conference.
At the start of March, New York-based JetBlue was generating about $6 million in revenue daily. The carrier now anticipates generating an average of $10-12 million in revenue daily during the month, Hayes says.
“That shows you how much acceleration there has been,” he says.
JetBlue needs about $13-15 million in daily revenue to reach “cash break even”, Hayes adds.
JetBlue now predicts its first-quarter revenue will decline 61-64% from revenue in the same period two years ago, before the pandemic struck, the carrier says in a 15 March securities filing. That range improves upon JetBlue’s previous prediction that its first-quarter 2021 revenue would decline 65-70% from the 2019 period.
“Although booking trends remain choppy, in recent weeks JetBlue has experienced an improvement in bookings by leisure and visiting-friends-and-relatives customers,” JetBlue’s filing says.
