According to the Wall Street Journal ,"JetBlue reported its third-quarter earnings rose 58% and the U.S. discount carrier also unveiled changes in plans to improve its fleet to more closely align with demand and reduce costs".
"The company has continued to expand by increasing capacity and adding new destinations. JetBlue reiterated its 2013 capacity growth projection for the year of 5.5% to 7.5%.
JetBlue has tweaked its model over the years, in many ways becoming more like a full-service carrier. It added a frequent-flier plan, began overseas flights to the Caribbean and northern Latin America, added rows of coach seats with more legroom that are sold for higher fares, instituted a fee for the second checked bag and has plans to add premium seats.
JetBlue reported a profit of $71 million, or 21 cents a share, up from $45 million, or 14 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue increased 10% to $1.44 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters recently expected $1.44 billion.
Passenger revenue per available seat mile, which is an important measure of performance for the industry, improved by 5.4%.
Passenger traffic rose 5.4% and capacity grew 5.1%. The percentage of seats filled—or load factor—was up at 85% from 84.8%".
