Traffic in December increased 6.8 percent from December 2017, on a capacity increase of 8.5 percent. Load factor for December 2018 was 81.4 percent, a decrease of 1.3 points from December 2017. JetBlue’s preliminary completion factor for December 2018 was 99.8 percent and its on-time (1) performance was 74.5 percent.
Fourth quarter revenue per available seat mile (RASM) is expected to increase approximately 2.4 percent year-over-year. This is consistent with our prior guidance range of 1.5 to 3.5 percent. December revenue trends performed as expected. Higher than expected completion factor negatively impacted fourth quarter RASM by approximately 0.3 points.
JETBLUE AIRWAYS TRAFFIC RESULTS
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| December 2018 | December 2017 | % Change | |||||||
| Revenue passenger miles (000) | 4,354,643 | 4,079,287 | 6.8 | % | |||||
| Available seat miles (000) | 5,352,847 | 4,931,590 | 8.5 | % | |||||
| Load factor | 81.4 | % | 82.7 | % | -1.3 pts. | ||||
| Revenue passengers | 3,536,377 | 3,430,346 | 3.1 | % | |||||
| Departures | 31,658 | 30,659 | 3.3 | % | |||||
| Average stage length (miles) | 1,128 | 1,091 | 3.4 | % | |||||
| Y-T-D 2018 | Y-T-D 2017 | % Change | |||||||
| Revenue passenger miles (000) | 50,790,104 | 47,239,706 | 7.5 | % | |||||
| Available seat miles (000) | 59,880,815 | 56,007,224 | 6.9 | % | |||||
| Load factor | 84.8 | % | 84.3 | % | 0.5 pts. | ||||
| Revenue passengers | 42,149,989 | 40,038,090 | 5.3 | % | |||||
| Departures | 366,619 | 353,681 | 3.7 | % | |||||
| Average stage length (miles) | 1,096 | 1,072 | 2.2 | % | |||||
(1) The U.S. Department of Transportation considers on-time arrivals to be those domestic flights arriving within 14 minutes of schedule.
JetBlue is New York's Hometown Airline®, and a leading carrier in Boston, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, Los Angeles (Long Beach), Orlando, and San Juan. JetBlue carries more than 42 million customers a year to 100+ cities in the U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America with an average of 1,000 daily flights.
(photo JetBlue)