Jet Blue Defers Buying A321 Aircraft to 2030 And Beyond

JetBlue Airways Chief Financial Officer Ursula Hurley said that the airline has deferred buying of 44 A321Neo Aircraft to 2030 and beyond to improve cash flow. The aircraft was previously scheduled to be delivered between 2025 and 2029. JetBlue now expects to take delivery of 60 aircraft through 2029, with 56 of the remaining aircraft being A220 aircraft.

The aircraft deferrals include 13 A321XLR (extra-long range) aircraft, which JetBlue had intended to use for more Europe service. JetBlue’s transatlantic network currently includes 11 routes such as New York JFK and Boston to London, Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris and Edinburgh.

She said that the airline was setting itself on a path to restore the balance sheet health, and in support of securing our financial future, the company has decided an incremental aircraft deferral of approximately $3 billion of planned capital expenditures.

“Our focus going forward will be on driving value from our existing asset base and, ultimately, generating positive free cash flow,” she said during the company’s Q2-2024 earnings call on Tuesday.

“While many of these underlying initiatives will take time to ramp to their full potential, with the strong foundation of JetForward, we are poised to generate $800 million-$900 million of incremental EBIT from 2025 through 2027 and expect the benefit to be realised evenly over those three years,” she said.

The carrier’s fleet currently comprises 308 aircraft, including A220-300s (34), A320-200s (130), A321-200s (63), A321-200NX (25), A321-200NX(LR) (11), and E190s (45) respectively. JetBlue, the New York’s hometown airline, has reported a net loss of $691 million in the first six months of 2024.

JetBlue’s CEO Joanna Geraghty said that they have closed the first six months with meaningful year-over-year improvements in their operation and exceeded second quarter guidance through strong execution, early evidence the changes that they were implementing as part of their refocused strategy are yielding positive benefits.

“Today, and as the year progresses, we are excited to share more details about JetForward, our strategic framework to return JetBlue to sustained profitability, and the four priority moves aimed at driving significant value over the coming years,” Joanna said.

JetForward Strategy

JetBlue’s President Marty St George said that in Q2 of 2024, they continued to implement their JetForward strategy with the announcement of more significant network changes.

“We are actively reinvesting in our core geographies in New York, New England, Florida and Puerto Rico, while exiting routes and BlueCities that don’t meet our financial hurdle rate. As we progress through the second half of the year, we will be announcing additional initiatives designed to further enhance our customer value proposition, close the gap in our product offering to our peers and drive significant financial benefit,” Marty added.