The airline reported a fourth quarter net loss of $381 million or ($1.34) per diluted share on a 67.4% revenue decline to $661 million. For the full year 2020, JetBlue reported a net loss of $1.4 billion or ($4.91) per diluted share on a 64% revenue decline to $3.0 billion.
On Thursday (January 28, 2021), JetBlue Airways reported their fourth quarter and full year 2020 financial results. The carrier announced a fourth quarter net loss of 381 million or ($1.34) per diluted share on a revenue decline of 67.4 percent to $661 million. For the full year, the company reported a net loss of $1.36 billion or ($4.91) per diluted share on a year-over-year decline in revenue of 63.5 percent to $2.96 billion. JetBlue’s fourth quarter capacity was reduced by 47 percent compared to the same period last year and operating expenses declined year-over-year by 38 percent. At December 31, 2020, the company had approximately $3.1 billion in unrestricted cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. In Thursday’s announcement, JetBlue’s Chief Executive Officer, Robin Hayes, said,
“2020 was a year like no other, as the COVID-19 pandemic challenged our industry in ways we have never seen before. The very foundation of our business model - our culture, our passion for customer service, and our focus on safety – continue to guide us as we march towards recovery. Despite the financial results, I'm proud of what our crewmembers have accomplished in this extraordinary year. I could not be more confident in our future. Our team not only managed through the ongoing demand challenges, but made important progress on strategic initiatives – including revenue, capacity and cost actions.
“As we moved through 2020, we meaningfully reduced our cash burn, and are starting to shift our focus to rebuilding our margins. We remain cautiously optimistic that demand trends will improve later this year. More importantly, this crisis has made us a more agile, creative and resilient airline, and we believe our initiatives will allow us to emerge with structurally better margins.”
During the fourth quarter, JetBlue raised over $700 million through an equity offering and sale-leaseback transactions, while achieving fixed and variable cost savings through aggressive capacity management and executing on their cost reduction plan. The airline’s fourth quarter cash burn was $6.7 million per day, at the lower end of their projected $6 to $8 million range. JetBlue hopes to reduce total operating costs by $1.2 billion in 2021 compared to 2019, placing the company on a pathway to deliver a better cost per available seat mile, excluding fuel (CASM-ex) in 2022, versus 2019.
JetBlue is ‘New York’s Hometown Airline® and a leading carrier in Boston (BOS), Fort Lauderdale (FLL), Los Angeles (LAX), Orlando (MCO) and San Juan (SJU). The airline carries guests to destinations across the U.S., Caribbean and Latin America. JetBlue Airways Corporation trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol JBLU.
Source: JetBlue