JetBlue today shared its fourth-quarter 2021 results. The New York-based airline reported much improved figures over the same period in 2020 but struggles of the pandemic continue to take their toll, leading to a Q4 2021 net loss of $129 million.
Losses remain
The hybrid carrier’s Q4 2021 passenger revenue was a total of $1.695 billion, a significant boost from the Q4 2020 revenue of $606 million. Moreover, passenger revenue pour toute l'année 2021 was $5.609 billion, more than double the $2.733 billion reported for 2020.
Overall, the increase in revenue is helping to reduce the net loss for the airline. The company’s Q4 2021 net loss of $129 million is a considerable reduction from the Q4 2020 net loss of $373 million. Moreover, the total 2020 net loss of $182 million is a portion of the $1.354 billion posted for the previous year.
JetBlue notes that the rise of new virus waves following the arrival of Omicron had a notable impact on the airline’s key market of the US Northeast. For instance, there was a huge spike in the firm’s home of New York, which reported a total of over 3 million virus cases middle of December. This number then rose to over 4 million by early January.
Espoir pour 2022
As a result of this case rises, there were increased passenger cancellations that were matched by staff sickness. Regardless, JetBlue has its sights for a better start to the new year. It has its eyes on a profitable Q2 2022 and a strong summer season.
“While Omicron has temporarily weighed on demand in the very near-term, we expect sequential month-on-month improvement through the quarter, ultimately returning to sustained profitability in the spring and beyond. Furthermore, were it not for Omicron, we believe we would have generated higher revenue this quarter than in the first quarter of 2019,” stated JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes in the quarterly report.
« Je crois fermement que 2022 s'avérera être une année de transformation pour la rentabilité structurelle de JetBlue, alors que nous cherchons à restaurer notre capacité bénéficiaire et à créer de la valeur pour nos parties prenantes. Et nous prévoyons d’y parvenir en exploitant des leviers commerciaux significatifs, en restant constamment concentrés sur les coûts et en maintenant notre approche mesurée en matière d’allocation du capital.
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Rebondissements
JetBlue posted a GAAP loss per share of ($0.40) in the last quarter against diluted earnings per share of $0.56 in the same period in 2019. Additionally, the adjusted loss per share was ($0.36) in Q4 2021 against adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.56 in Q4 2019.
Altogether, with capacity declining 5.4% since Q4 2019, revenue declined by 9.7%. Regardless, JetBlue has been showing promising signs of returning to profitability au cours de la dernière année. The carrier will be looking to reap the benefits of its initiatives such as the launch of narrowbody flights to Europe et le leisure network shakeup to be consistently back in the black before the year is over.
What are your thoughts about JetBlue’s Q4 2021 results? What do you make of the company’s overall figures? Let us know what you think of the situation and the airline’s prospects in the comment section.
