JetBlue’s revenue slumps 15.1% in Q1 due to COVID-19 restrictions on travel and tourism

JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ: JBLU) released its first-quarter earnings report on Thursday that posted a broader hit to revenue than what the experts had forecast. The company attributed its downbeat performance to the Coronavirus pandemic that brought the global travel and tourism industry to a near halt in March.

JetBlue was reported around 0.3% down in premarket trading on Thursday. The company tanked 20.8% in total in five consecutive days through Wednesday.

The American low-cost airline printed its net quarterly loss at £217 million that translates to 78.5 pence per share. In the same quarter last year, the company had registered £34 million in net income or 11.3 pence per share.

JetBlue tops analysts’ estimate for adjusted loss per share in Q1

Excluding one-time items, JetBlue noted 34 pence of adjusted loss per share in the recent quarter versus the year-ago figure of 13 pence of earnings per share. According to FactSet, analysts had estimated the company to print 24.3 pence of loss per share in the first quarter.

Non-recurring items in Q1 included impairment charges attributed to lower demand due to the health crisis that has so far affected more than 1.2 million people in the United States and has caused a little under 75,000 deaths.

At £1.29 billion, JetBlue’s quarterly revenue came in 15.1% lower than last year and fell short of the experts’ forecast of £1.38 billion in Q1. The airline said that its revenue plunged 52% in March alone. The pandemic reduced the carrier’s capacity by 3.5% and also fuelled an 18.4% decline in traffic that resulted in its load factor slumping from 82.5% to 69.8%. In March alone, JetBlue’s capacity tanked 19%.

JetBlue accepts £970 million in payroll assistance

In the last two weeks of March, the U.S airline burned through £14.58 million cash a day on average that it aims at bringing down to just under £8.1 million per day by the end of May. The estimates are excluding the £970 million that JetBlue accepted in payroll assistance from the United States government.

At £6.50 per share, JetBlue is currently more than 55% down year to date in the stock market. In comparison, the benchmark S&P 500 index has lost around 14% in 2020 so far. Its performance in 2019, on the contrary, was reported fairly upbeat with an annual gain of roughly 15%.

At the time of writing, JetBlue is valued at £1.75 billion and has a price to earnings ratio of 4.21.