Shares of JetBlue Airways Corp. $(JBLU)$ fell 4.5% in premarket trading Tuesday, after the air carrier reported a narrower-than-expected third-quarter loss, but provided a downbeat revenue outlook for the current quarter. Net losses narrowed to $60 million, or 17 cents a share, from $153 million, or 46 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding nonrecurring items, the adjusted per-share loss of 16 cents beat the FactSet loss consensus of 21 cents. Total revenue grew 0.5% to $2.365 billion, just above the FactSet consensus of $2.356 billion, as passenger revenue slipped 0.1% to $2.198 billion to top expectations of $2.182 billion. Operating expenses fell 4.2% to $2.40 billion, as a 16.8% drop in aircraft fuel expenses to $584 million helped offset a 4.7% increase in payroll costs to $827 million. Load factor improved to 86.6% from 85.1%, as the 3.6% decline in capacity outpaced the 1.9% drop in traffic. For the current fourth quarter, JetBlue expects revenue to be down 7% to 3% from a year ago, while the current FactSet revenue consensus of $2.302 billion implies a 1% decline. The stock has run up 31.9% year to date through Monday, while the U.S. Global Jets ETF (JETS) has climbed 21.0% and the S&P 500 has advanced 22.1%.

-Tomi Kilgore

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October 29, 2024 07:18 ET (11:18 GMT)

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