August was tough. And, as expected, September was worse.
Last month, Motley Fool Stock Advisor pick JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ:JBLU) reported that the impact of Hurricane Charley had caused 50 flight cancellations and "numerous" other flight delays in August (see Charley, Frances, and JetBlue). And by the time of that report, the airline also said that Hurricane Frances had already caused an additional 262 canceled flights in September, with the possibility of a third hurricane looming.
Well, Hurricane Ivan came, and the damage from the three hurricanes amounted to a total of 414 canceled flights for the month of September, though the company did manage to add 83 unscheduled flights. The load factor, down slightly to 89.3% in August, fell to a paltry 76.6% in September as the weather naturally hurt flight attendance.
Overall, JetBlue grew traffic by 25% to 1.16 billion revenue passenger miles, compared with a 30.9% increase in capacity to 1.5 billion available seat miles.
In its report last month, JetBlue said that it still expected to post a "solidly profitable third quarter," though "significantly lower" than previously expected. And despite the rough September report, the stock is up slightly today, as the news was as expected.
While the company has had a couple of rough months, you can gather this from The Motley Fool's extensive coverage of the airline industry: We far prefer JetBlue's "solid" profitability and simpler business model -- alongside another value player in Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) -- to the complex challenges presented to investors by airlines such as Delta Airlines (NYS: DAL), Continental Airlines (NYSE:CAL), Northwest Airlines (NASDAQ:NWAC), American Airlines (NYSE:AMR), United Airlines, and US Airways.
For more on that, check out:
- US Airways' Holding Pattern
- Why Own a Legacy Airline?
- If Delta Craters, Or When
- Lessons Airlines Can Learn From PCs
- Delta's Dilemma
- Major Airlines Will Fail
Fool contributor Jeff Hwang owns none of the companies mentioned above.
