JetBlue's stock jumps after load factor rises for the first time in 5 months
Shares of JetBlue Airways Corp. jumped 3.4% in premarket trade Wednesday, after the air carrier reported monthly traffic growth that outpaced capacity growth for the first time in five months. June traffic increased 11.6% to 3.95 billion revenue passenger miles while capacity grew 10.5% to 4.59 billion available seat miles. That pushed June load factor up to 86.2% from 85.3%, the first increase since January. The company said preliminary June revenue per available seat mile (RASM) declined by about 4.5%. Including Wednesday's premarket gain, the stock was trading up 23% since it closed at a 17-month low of $15.15 on June 27. Year to date, it has tumbled 20% through Tuesday, while the NYSE Arca Airline has gained 2.3% and the S&P 500 index has tacked on 5.3%.
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