By Dean Seal
JetBlue Airways Corp. expects to hit the upper ends of its revenue and capacity growth projections for the second quarter as 98% of its May flights are on track to be completed as scheduled, the company said Thursday.
The high completion rate in May compares favorably to the first three weeks of April, in which just 90% of the airline’s scheduled flights were completed in the face of tough weather conditions and air traffic control disruption.
JetBlue now expects to hit or exceed the upper end of its prior guidance of between 11% and 16% revenue growth from 2019 levels. The company is also projecting its available seat miles, a metric for passenger carrying capacity, to increase by 2% to 3% from 2019 levels. It previously projected capacity as flat to increasing 3%.
The airline also raised its second-quarter expectation for average fuel prices to $4.08 from $3.79, and noted that it has not entered into any forward fuel derivative contracts to hedge its first-quarter fuel consumption.
Write to Dean Seal at dean.seal@wsj.com