JetBlue (JBLU -16.84%) reported fourth-quarter and full-year earnings before the bell today that beat analysts' estimates. JetBlue reported a quarterly profit of $47 million or $0.14 per share, which was up from just $1 million in the year-ago period. That topped Wall Street's expectations by a penny. The airline company also posted record fourth-quarter revenues of $1.4 billion, whereas analysts were looking for $1.35 billion in the quarter.
For full-year fiscal 2013, JetBlue generated $5.4 billion in revenue, which was in line with the Street's estimates. Looking ahead, JetBlue warned that its upcoming first-quarter results would be dragged down by severe Northeast winter storms in early January, which forced JetBlue to cancel as many as 1,800 flights this month. Those cancellations resulted in an estimated $45 million loss in revenue and $30 million decline in operating income for its first quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the average JetBlue fare rose 8.9% to $168.94 each way -- an increase of nearly $14 over Q4 2012 -- and passenger traffic grew 7.1%. That increase in flying wasn't enough to offset the airline's aggressive expansion, however, and the average flight was slightly less full than in the same period of 2012.
Shares of JetBlue are up more than 40% in the past year, to where the stock currently trades at around $8.51 apiece.
-- Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.
