JetBlue Airways Corp., hammered by delays and cancellations this year, is cutting its summer schedule by more than 10% from original plans and reining in growth ambitions for the full year.
The Long Island City, New York-based carrier is reducing flights for a second time this year as it now projects growth of between zero and 5% and works to restore operational reliability. It originally sought to increase flying capacity as much as 15% this year from 2019 to meet surging demand for domestic flights, JetBlue said in a statement Tuesday.
“We had to act quickly and decisively” to address the problems, Robin Hayes, the company’s chief executive officer, said in an interview. “We have to get back to basics and back to delivering a reliable operation. This reset is going to help us achieve that.”
JetBlue’s flying disruptions and steps to help remedy them will cost the carrier as much as $180 million this year, and reduce expected second-quarter revenue growth by about 4 percentage points, Hayes said.
The airline’s shares tumbled as much as 10% to $11.71 at 1:25 p.m. in New York. The stock is down about 17% so far this year.
Like many carriers, JetBlue has been hit hard by attrition and a backlog in pilot training. It has tried to spare from cuts its plans to expand service from New York-area airports as part of an alliance with American Airlines Group Inc.
Storms earlier this month in New York and Florida, where much of JetBlue’s operations are focused, have dented its performance. More than one-third of its arrivals have been late so far this year, with an average delay of 66 minutes, according to data tracker FlightAware.com. Another 6% of its flights have been canceled.
