JetBlue Airways Evolving Premium Product In 2025

Changes to its product and pricing are driving the majority of improvements JetBlue Airways is seeing from its go-forward plan, with network shifts expected to generate more of an impact in 2025.

Those changes include investments in premium offerings, now set to evolve further in the coming weeks as premium segment revenues are up by double digits year-over-year. “Our customers’ desire for premium offerings is healthy and growing,” said CEO Joanna Geraghty on an Oct. 29 earnings call.

Beginning in mid-November, the LCC will tweak the merchandising of its “Even More Space” extra-legroom product before it rebrands to “EvenMore” in 2025, a next iteration that is expected to bundle new, yet-to-be-detailed benefits and amenities.

A new airline partnership also could be in JetBlue’s future as another tool to help achieve its JetForward plan, a roadmap back to sustained profitability. This is expected to follow two pursuits cut short by separate federal rulings—its Northeast Alliance (NEA) with American Airlines and a failed merger with Spirit Airlines.

“It’s certainly something that we’re looking at, it could be with American, it could be with another carrier,” explained President Marty St. George, noting that the carrier “learned a lot through the NEA as far as what worked for us, what might not work for us ... I’m cautiously optimistic that we might have an opportunity at some point.”

An ongoing network recalibration is being worked with the goal of strengthening JetBlue’s East Coast leisure network, with over 50 route exits and 15 city closures freeing its aircraft to serve better-performing origin markets in the Northeast. In total, the redeploys announced and executed this year represent over 20% of JetBlue’s network, with recent departures including Burbank, California; Charlotte, North Carolina; Tallahassee, Florida; Minneapolis and San Antonio.

A large portion of the announced network initiatives are expected to come online before year-end, with redeploys expected to mature throughout 2025. And despite noting an increase in competitive capacity in the fourth quarter (Q4) versus the third quarter (Q3), the carrier remains confident in the underlying supply and demand backdrop.

“It’s really not being contributed to by the ULCCs, but we’re seeing it from other carriers,” explained St. George. “We’re still maintaining our third-quarter unit revenue, and I think that just speaks to the underlying strength of our revenue performance.”

For Q3, JetBlue reported operating revenue of $2.4 billion, up by 0.5% year-over-year on a 4.2% decrease in operating expenses. The LCC posted a net loss of $60 million for the quarter, compared to a net loss of $153 million in Q3 2023, and its pre-tax margin was minus 3.3% in Q3, improved from minus 7.4%.

“At the end of the day, we still weren’t profitable, but the progress we made this quarter is evident that we are taking the necessary steps to get the business back to operating profitability,” said CFO Ursula Hurley. “It is also indicative of our commitment to hitting our financial target, from the $300 million in revenue initiatives for 2024, which we expect to exceed, to the second iteration of our structural cost program, which we expect to achieve at the top end of our range.”

Looking ahead, JetBlue expects 2024 revenue to be down by 4-5% when compared to 2023, an improvement from prior expectations of being down by 4-6% for the full year. Revenue in Q4 is expected to fall 3-7% from the year-ago quarter and disruption from Hurricane Milton, combined with pressure from the U.S. presidential election, is projected to hurt revenue-per-available-seat-mile (RASM) performance by about two points.

Pratt & Whitney geared-turbofan engine availability issues continue to challenge the carrier’s long-term capacity planning. Still expecting related aircraft on the ground (AOG) to be in the mid- to high-teens in 2025, JetBlue expects ASMs next year to be roughly flat when compared to 2024. Its Q4 capacity is projected to be down by 4-7% year-over-year, and for the full year 2024 expected to be 2.5-4.5% below 2023 levels.

During Q3, JetBlue took delivery of six Airbus A220s and anticipates seven handovers in Q4 (six A220s and one A321neo), to bring total deliveries in 2024 to 27. It is also in the process of extending the leases on 30 aircraft to help fill some of the lost capacity due to AOG.

While Geraghty confirmed the carrier is not interested in revisiting a potential acquisition of Spirit—a ULCC now reportedly exploring Chapter 11 options—JetBlue will remain watchful for other prospects.

“If there are opportunities that come up with assets that are reasonable and may allow us to grow in a capitally prudent manner, obviously we would consider and evaluate those,” said the CEO. “We are laser-focused on delivering the organic plan for JetBlue, and then the opportunity to potentially consider things that may shake free, to the extent it makes sense.”